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AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES 

Edited by 

Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph. D. 



Gbe Hmerican Crisis Biographies 

Edited by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph.D. With the 
counsel and advice of Professor John B. McMaster, of 
the University of Pennsylvania. 

Each i2mo, cloth, with frontispiece portrait. Price 
$1.25 net; by mail, $137. 

These biographies will constitute a complete and comprehensive 
history of the great American sectional struggle in the form of readable 
and authoritative biography. The editor has enlisted the co-operation 
of many competent writers, as will be noted from the list given below. 
An interesting feature of the undertaking is that the series is to be im- 

Rartial, Southern writers having been assigned to Southern subjects and 
[orthern writers to Northern suDJects, but all will belong to the younger 
generation of writers, thus assuring freedom from any suspicion of war- 
time prejudice. The Civil War will not be treated as a rebellion, but as 
the great event in the history of our nation, which, after forty years, it 
is now clearly recognized to have been. 

Now ready : 
Abraham Lincoln. By Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer. 
Thomas H. Benton. By Joseph M. Rogers. 
David G. Farragut. By John R. Spears. 
William T. Sherman. By Edward Robins. 
Frederick Douglass. By Booker T. Washington. 
Judah P. Benjamin. By Pierce Butler. 
Robert E. Lee. By Philip Alexander Bruce. 
Jefferson Davis. By Prof. W. E. Dodd. 
Alexander H. Stephens. By Louis Pendleton. 
John C. Calhoun. By Gaillard Hunt. 
" Stonewall" Jackson. By Henry Alexander White. 
John Brown. By W. E. Burghardt Dubois. 
Charles Sumner. By Prof. George H. Haynes. 
Henry Clay. By Thomas H. Clay. 

In preparation : 

Daniel Webster. By Prof. C. H. Van Tyne. 
William Lloyd Garrison. By Lindsay Swift. 
William H. Seward. By Edward Everett Hale, Jr. 
Stephen A. Douglas. By Prof. Henry Parker Willis. 
Thaddeus Stevens. By Prof. J. A. Woodburn. 
Andrew Johnson. By Prof. Walter L. Fleming. 
Ulysses S. Grant. By Prof. Franklin S. Edmonds. 
Edwin M. Stanton. By Edward S. Corwin. 
Robert Toombs. By Prof. U. B. Phillips. 
Jay Cooke. By Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer. 



AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES 



Henry Clay 



by 
HIS GRANDSON 

THOMAS HART CLAY 

Completed by 

ELLIS PAXSON OBERHOLTZER PH. D. 




PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 



ET-2 



Copyright, 1910, by 

George W. Jacobs & Company 

Published February, iQio 



All rights reserved 
Printed in U. S. A. 



©CLA25S 






PREFACE 

This life of Henry Clay was begun by his grand- 
son, Thomas Hart Clay. Other hands have finished 
it. Mr. Clay died April 8, 1907, and the completion 
of the book has been accomplished by Dr. Ellis 
Paxson Oberholtzer, the editor of the series, with 
the assistance of Mrs. Clay. 

Mr. Clay was eminently suited for the work of 
writing the life of his grandfather. He was a man 
of literary taste, cultivated and scholarly, and he 
had been a careful student of the political history of 
the United States. Free from prejudice, with a 
mind full of judicious admiration for his great an- 
cestor, his aim in this book has been to recall to the 
minds of Americans the patriotism and statesman- 
ship of Henry Clay, and to recount the charming 
characteristics which made him the most beloved of 
public men. 

Thanks are due Miss Harrison of Lexington for 
the use of the diary of her father, James O. Harri- 
son. Mr. Harrison was a Kentuckian, a lawyer of 
great ability and a man who had the esteem and re- 
gard of the whole community. Always a Democrat 
yet always a devoted friend of Henry Clay, whom 
he probably knew better than any other of Mr. 
Clay's contemporaries, Mr. Harrison was chosen to 
be one of his executors. 



6 PREFACE 

Appreciation and thanks are to be expressed to 
Gaillard Hunt for permission given Mr. Clay to 
make use of his delightful book, The First Forty 
Years of Washington Society, and to Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons, the publishers of the volume, for their 
gracious consent also. 

A. G. C. 



NOTE BY THE EDITOR 

While I was seeking a writer of a biography of 
Henry Clay, Bishop Lewis William Burton of 
Keutucky was addressed for a suggestion. He at 
once recommended Mr. Clay's grandson, Thomas 
H. Clay of Lexington, who had been collecting 
material for this work for many years. His sudden 
death interrupted his labors upon the volume, as 
Mrs. Clay states in the preface, and she has very 
kindly supplemented my efforts to complete it in the 
spirit in which it was begun. 

It is believed that there is in existence little if any 
material which is not made use of in this biography. 
Clay's papers and effects were scattered among his 
descendants. Before the war "Ashland" was torn 
down and rebuilt by his son, James B. Clay, whose 
widow a few years later sold it to Kentucky, which 
proposed to convert it into a college. The estate 
afterward returned to the possession of the family, 
and it is now the home of Mrs. Henry Clay Mc- 
Dowell, a daughter of Henry Clay, Jr., who was 
killed at Buena Vista. 

When " Ashland" was purchased by the state, 
many baskets of letters were taken from the garrets 
by a man in no way connected with the family. 
Some, it is said, were blown by the winds up and 
down t the roads ; the rest were placed in a storage- 
house, where they were destroyed by fire. While 



8 NOTE BY THE EDITOR 

it is rather disappointing that in the preparation of 
this book so comparatively lew new sources of in- 
formation have been opened up, it is satisfying to 
know that what it is possible to find has been 
found, and that no considerable number of letters 

remain anywhere untouched. 

E. P. O. 






CONTENTS 

I. Early Years 15 

II. Entrance Into Public Life . . 34 

III. The War of 1812 .... 59 

IV. Constructive Policies ... 81 
V. The Missouri Compromise . . 105 

VI. The Election of 1824 . . .125 

VII. Secretary of State . . .147 

VIII. Nullification and Compromise . 172 

IX. The War Against Jackson . .216 

X. "Tippecanoe and Tyler , Too " . 244 

XI. Slavery and Anti-Slavery . . 288 

XII. The Last Great Compromise . . 323 

XIII. The Last Two Years . . .368 

XIV. Personal Characteristics . . 387 

Bibliography 430 

Index 434 



CHRONOLOGY 

1777— Birth of Henry Clay, April 12th, in the " Slashes," 
Hanover County, Va., the fifth of seven children. 

1781 — Death of his father, Rev. John Clay, a Baptist clergyman. 

1791 — His mother having remarried, Henry Clay becomes a clerk 
in a retail store in Richmond. 

1792 — Appointed to a place in the office of the Clerk of the High 
Court of Chancery in Richmond where he falls under the 
influence of Chancellor Wythe and becomes a student at 
law. His mother removes to Kentucky. 

1797 —Follows his mother and stepfather to Kentucky u to grow 
up with the West." He settles in Lexington as a lawyer. 

1799 — Marries Lucretia Hart, daughter of Colonel Thomas Hart. 
Writes letters against slavery. 

1803 — Elected to a seat in the state legislature, his first political 
office. 

1806 — Defends Aaron Burr, whom he believed to be a persecuted 
man. Elected to the Senate of the United States to fill 
an unexpired term before he is thirty years of age. 

1807 — Returned to the state legislature, where he becomes 
Speaker of the Assembly. 

1809 — Again sent to the United States Senate to fill an un- 
finished term. 

1810-11— Makes himself by his oratory and his bold advocacy 
of the nation's rights the leader of the Young Republicans. 

1811 — Elected to the House of Representatives at Washington 
from the Lexington district and at once becomes Speaker. 
He warmly champions American rights and is an in- 
fluence in bringing on the War of 1812. 

1813 — Delivers a great speech in favor of "Free Trade and 
Seamen's Rights." 

1814 — Resigns the speakership and goes to Europe as a peace 
commissioner. Treaty of Ghent signed on December 
24th. 



12 CHRONOLOGY 

1815 — Returns home after a visit to England to find himself re- 
elected to his place in the House of Representatives where 
he is again made .Speaker. Declines the mission to Russia. 

1816 — Declines a place in President Madison's cabinet as Secre- 
tary of War. Becomes a leading advocate of constructive 
policies, including a protective tariff, internal improve- 
ments and a national bank. 

1817 — Invited to become Secretary of War and then Minister to 
England by President Monroe, but he declines both offices 
and continues to act as Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where he soon becomes an opponent of the ad- 
ministration. 

1818 — Orations in behalf of the people of the South American 
states. 

1819 — Severe arraignment of General Jackson's course in Florida 
in the previous year. 

Ib20 — Asserts the right of the United States to Texas under the 
terms of the Louisiana Purchase. Advocates the Missouri 
Compromise. Retires from public life to look after his 
embarrassed private affairs. 

1821 — Returns to Washington to assist in the final adjustment 
of the Missouri question. 

1823 — Reelected to Congress and again to the speakership. 
Avows his candidacy for the presidency in succession to 
Monroe. 

1824 — Ninety-nine electoral votes being cast for Jackson, eighty- 
four for Adams, forty-one for Crawford and thirty-seven 
for Clay, election from the three highest devolves upon 
the House of Representatives. 

1825 — Clay supports Adams who is elected over Jackson. Clay 
becomes Secretary of State. Origin of the " corrupt bar- 
gain " story. 

I -•Jo'— Duel with John Randolph for hi9 abusive speech alluding 
to "the coalition of Blifil and Black George." Clay 
organizes the first Pan-American Congress. 

1828 — Adams a candidate to succeed himself beaten by Jackson 
for President. 

1829— Clay retires from the State Department and returns to 
Kentucky, once more a private citizen. 



CHEOXOLOGY 13 

1831 — Elected to the United States Senate by the legislature of 
Kentucky where he combats Jackson's policies and founds 
the Whig party. Nominated for the presidency at a 
convention at Baltimore, with John Sergeant of Pennsyl- 
vania as the candidate for Vice-President. 

1832 — Outlines his policies on the subject of the bank, the 
"American system" and other matters. Jackson se- 
cures 219 electoral votes and Clay only 49. 

1833 — South Carolina's threats of nullification because of an 
offensive tariff law met by a compromise. Jackson orders 
a removal of the deposits from the United States Bank. 

1834 — The Senate censures the President, Clay leading the as- 
sault. 

1836— General W. H. Harrison and others put forward as Whig 
candidates for the presidency. Van Buren, Jackson's 
choice as his successor, elected by a great majority. 

1837 — The Jackson censure by the Senate is expunged, Benton 
leadiug the fight. Jackson's "reign " comes to an end. 
Clay reelected to the Senate. 

1839 — His great debates with Calhoun. Whig national con- 
vention meets at Harrisburg. Political managers set aside 
Clay to nominate General Harrison and John Tyler. 

1840 — Clay supports the party ticket. Harrison and Tyler are 
elected by large majorities. 

1841 — Harrison dies and Tyler becomes President, soon to break 
with Clay and the Whig party. 

1842 — Clay retires from Congress after an affecting farewell ad- 
dress. 

1844 — Whig candidate for the presidency. Writes the 
"Raleigh" and " Alabama " Letters on the subject of 
the annexation of Texas. Defeated by James K. Polk 
by narrow majorities in New York, Pennsylvania, 
Georgia and Louisiana. 

1845— His friends raise a large sum of money and lift the 
mortgage from " Ashland," his home near Lexington. 

1848— Deceived, he again allows the use of his name as a candidate 
for the presidency. Nomination and election of Zachary 
Taylor. 

1849— Again sent to the Senate of the United States to aid in 
the settlement of the issues raised by the Mexican War. 






14 CHRONOLOGY 

1850 — Proposes a compromise which after long and acrimoni- 
ous debate is adopted. The Nashville convention meets. 
The South is temporarily pacified. 

1851 — Continues his efforts to keep the two sections at peace. 
Goes to Cuba for his health, which is much impaired. 

1852— Meets Kossuth. Dies in Washington June 29th, in the 
seventy-sixth year of his age. Buried in Lexington after 
a remarkable series of funeral ceremonies as the corse 
proceeds through many states. 



HENRY CLAY 



CHAPTER I 

EARLY YEARS 



In the county of Hanover, Virginia, in a neigh- 
borhood called the " Slashes," because it was 
largely marsh- land overgrown with bushes, on 
April 12, 1777, Henry Clay was born. His father, 
the Reverend John Clay, was a Baptist minister, a 
man of great dignity and eloquence, and from him 
Henry Clay inherited his incomparable voice. 
Whenever it was known that John Clay was to 
preach, the people flocked to hear him, and in the 
summer-time he would speak from a great flat stone 
on the bank of the South Anna River, in whose 
clear waters he baptized many who felt the burden 
of their sins, and wished them washed away. 

According to Hotten's Original Lists of Emigrants 
to America, 1600-1700, among the "Musters of the 
Inhabitants in Virginia" is found this : 

"The Muster of the Inhabitants of Jordan's 
Jorney, Charles Cittie, taken the 21st of January, 
1624. 

"The Muster of John Claye [so spelled in the 
record] : 



16 HENEY CLAY 

" John Claye arrived in the Treasuror, February, 

L613. 
" Ann, his wife, in the Ann, August, 1623. 

Servant : 
"William Nicholls, aged 26 yeres, in the Dutie, 

in May, 1619." 

This John Claye was the first of the name to come 
to America, and he was the ancestor of Henry Clay. 
He was known as Captain John Claye, the English 
Grenadier, and he was one of the Jamestown 
colonists. 

The Eeverend John Clay, Henry Clay's father, 
married Elizabeth Hudson, the younger of the two 
daughters of George Hudson and Elizabeth Jen- 
nings Hudson. George Hudson was a man of im- 
portance in Henrico County and was an inspector of 
tobacco at Hanover Court- House. His elder daugh- 
ter, Mary, married John Watkins, who, before 
Kentucky became a state, removed to that part of 
Virginia, and in 1792, when Kentucky was admitted 
into the Union, he was a delegate to the Constitu- 
tional Convention. He was also a representative in 
the first legislature of the new state. 

For some unknown reason the Eeverend John 
Clay was frequently called "Sir" John Clay, and 
in a decree of court given in a friendly suit between 
the two daughters of George Hudson, Mary Wat- 
kins and Elizabeth Clay, it is stated that "the 
money is subject to the disposition of their husbands, 
John Watkins and Sir John Clay." On this sub- 
ject Benry Clay wrote to a person who wished to 
establish some relationship with him: "The de- 
sire to trace out your ancestry is very natural. I 



EAELY YEAES 17 

have often felt it in respect to mine, but I have no 
written, and very imperfect traditional accounts of 
them. . . . My ancestors emigrated from Eng 
land and settled in the colony of Virginia early, I 
believe, in the seventeenth century. My father was 
born there, not far from Eichmond, on the south 
side of the James Eiver. He removed to Hanover 
County, shortly before my birth in that county. 
His name was John, and he was sometimes called 
Sir John Clay (as I have seen in the record of ju- 
dicial proceedings), but he had no right to that title. 
It was a sobriquet which he somehow acquired. 
. . . My father was a Baptist preacher." * 

To John and Elizabeth Hudson Clay were born 
eight children, three daughters and five sons. Two 
of the daughters died in early womanhood, one in 
infancy. Of the five sons, George, the eldest child, 
died in Virginia just after coming of age. The 
second son, Henry, died in infancy. John, the 
sixth child, grew to manhood and became a mer- 
chant in New Orleans. He died in that city, leav- 
ing no children. The seventh child was Henry, 
named for the little boy who had died, and the 
eighth child was Porter Clay. 

The Eeverend John Clay died in 1781, when his 
son Henry was between four and five years old. A 
short time after his father's death, the boy was sent 
to the country school in the neighborhood, taught 
by an Englishman named Peter Deacon. Here he 
learned reading, writing, and a very little arithme- 
tic. In this log schoolhouse in the ''Slashes," the 
only school he ever attended, he spent three years, 
1 Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, edited by Calvin Colton. 



18 HENRY CLAY 

and of its master he always had the kindliest recol- 
lections. 

After leaving this school he lived with his mother 
on the little farm which was their home, and as- 
sisted her in such duties as a boy of his age could 
perform, being often seen on his way to a neighbor- 
ing mill with a bag of grain ; wherefore his popular 
title later in political campaigns of the " Mill Boy 
of the Slashes." 

Ten years after the death of John Clay, Mrs. Clay 
married Henry Watkins, the younger brother of 
her sister Mary's husband. Captain Watkins has 
been described as " an elegant, accomplished gentle- 
man, of good blood, and of goodly wealth," and he 
was a kind stepfather to the young Clays. When 
Henry was fourteen years of age Captain Watkins 
procured for him a situation as clerk in a small 
store for general merchandise, in Richmond, kept 
by Richard Denny, and here he remained one year. 

In his stepson Captain Watkins seems to have 
felt special interest, and soon realized that he de- 
served better opportunities than could be met with 
in Mr. Denny's little store. Through the aid of his 
friend, Colonel Thomas Tinsley, a member of the 
Virginia House of Burgesses, he obtained for the 
boy a clerkship in the office of Tinsley' s brother, 
Peter, who was Clerk of the High Court of Chancery 
of which George Wythe was Chancellor. The latter 
was a frequent visitor at Mr. Tinsley' s office, where 
he noticed the diligence of the young clerk, and 
also his neat penmanship. He needed an amanuensis 
for writing out and recording the decisions of the 
court, so he secured the services of Clay, who still 



EARLY YEARS 19 

retained his place with Mr. Tinsley, the under- 
standing being that he was to be at the chancellor's 
service upon demand. This arrangement lasted for 
nearly four years when, by the advice of Chancellor 
Wythe, he took up the study of law in the office 
of Attorney-General Brooke, who was afterward 
Governor of Virginia. For a year he was an in- 
mate of that gentleman's home. This association 
was of infinite value to the young man, as through 
it he mingled with the best society of Richmond, 
and his character and manners were fashioned to 
the chivalric standards of ' i Old Virginia. ' ' 

His faithful work, his intelligence, his courtesy 
and engaging manners secured for him the most 
friendly consideration of Chancellor Wythe, who di- 
rected his reading and studies, and placed his own 
library at the youth's disposal. Nearly every day 
in the chancellor's office he met the most distin- 
guished men of Virginia, many of whom had served 
in the councils of the nation during the troublous 
times of the Revolution. Twice he had the extreme 
good fortune to hear Patrick Henry, whose birth 
and beginnings were also in Hanover County. 
"Above all, in these relations," says Robert C. 
Winthrop, "he acquired the friendship of George 
Wythe, who was not only one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, and a distinguished 
member of the Virginia convention which ratified 
the Federal Constitution, of which he was an earnest 
advocate and supporter, but who signalized his love 
of human freedom by emancipating all his negroes 
before his own death and making provision for their 
subsistence. The influence of such a friendship and 



20 HENKY CLAY 

such an example could hardly fail to manifest itself 
in the future of any one who enjoyed it. It was 
better than an education." 1 

In 1792, shortly after Henry Clay was established 
in Mr. Tinsley's office, Captain Watkins with his 
family removed to Kentucky which had just been 
admitted into the Union. Even as late as 1792 the 
journey from Hanover, Virginia, to Kentucky was 
no small undertaking. The roads were mere trails 
and bands of roving Indians were frequently en- 
countered, but the party arrived safely in Woodford 
County, where they resided for many years. With 
Captain Watkins and his wife came her two son3, 
John and Porter Clay. The latter, the youngest of 
the Clay children, was apprenticed to a cabinet- 
maker, and in the Kentucke 2 Gazette of December 7, 
1805, appears his advertisement as a chair and cab- 
inet-maker. He was a man of great piety and late in 
life became a Baptist minister. Kemoving to Mis- 
souri, he preached the first English sermon ever 
preached west of the Mississippi Kiver. He died on 
December 30, 1819, at Camden, Ark. 

Henry Clay studied law for one year and was ad- 
mitted to practice in the Virginia Court of Appeals 
in 1797, shortly afterward changing his residence 
to Lexington, Ky. He had felt the separation from 
his mother, and the longing to be near her induced 
him to follow her over the mountains. She was a 
woman of great vigor of mind, warm-hearted and 



1 Robert C. Winthrop, Memoir of Henry Clay. For a succinct 
account of the life of this able Virginian see Saudersou's Biog- 
raphies of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

2 The early spelling. 



EAELY YEAKS 21 

imperious, loving to her children and a devoted 
friend. She died in 1829 in the eightieth year of her 
age, and was buried in the country graveyard near 
her home. In 1851, the year before his death, Henry 
Clay had her remains removed to the beautiful ceme- 
tery on the outskirts of Lexington and placed in his 
lot there. Over her grave he caused to be erected 
a simple monument of Italian marble with this in- 
scription upon it : 

Elizabeth Waikins 

Formerly 

Elizabeth Clay 

Born 1750 

Died 1829. 

This monument, a tribute to her many domestic virtues 
Has been prompted by the filial affection and veneration 
Of one of her grateful sons 
H. Clay. 

Henry Clay arrived in Lexington in November, 

1797, but he did not immediately begin to practice 
his profession, wisely waiting until he could become 
familiar with the statutes of Kentucky, and with 
the peculiarities of local procedure. In March, 

1798, the following entry appears in the order-book 
of the Lexington District Court : 

" Henry Clay, Esquire, produced in Court a 
license and on his motion is permitted to practice 
as an Attorney- at -Law in this Court, and thereupon 
took the several oaths by Law prescribed.' ' 

For several months he devoted himself to further 
study of the law, and he joined a debating society 
whose proceedings were open to the public, and were 
attended by "the fashion and intelligence of the 



22 HENRY CLAY 

town." He was soon admired and courted by the 
people. In his farewell address to the Senate in 
1842 he said: " Scarce had I set my foot on her 
[Kentucky's] generous soil when I was seized and 
embraced with parental fondness, caressed as though 
a favorite child, and patronized with liberal and un- 
bounded munificence." 

On all public occasions he was greatly sought for, 
and this notice appears in the Kentucke Gazette of 
July 10, 1800 : " Friday last being the anniversary 
of American Independence, it was celebrated in this 
place with the usual joy and enthusiasm. At twelve 
o'clock the volunteer companies of Infantry and 
Horse assembled at the Public Square, attended by a 
considerable concourse of citizens. They proceeded 
to the Court- House, where an eloquent oration was 
delivered by Henry Clay, Esquire." 

When Henry Clay changed his home from Rich- 
mond, Va., to Lexington, Ky., that town was al- 
ready a place of importance. It was the capital of 
the " blue grass country" and was surrounded then, 
as now, by broad and beautiful lauds. Its very name 
no doubt contributed to its fame, as it was a patri- 
otic memorial of the first battle-ground of the Revo- 
lution by a few hunters who had established their 
camp-fires there. The hardy pioneer settlers were 
followed by a development of culture which was 
probably not surpassed in any town west of the Al- 
leghanies at that early day. In it was published the 
first newspaper beyond the mountains, the Kentucke 
Gazette, established in 1787 ; and the first library 
in the West was started there iu 1705. The society 
of the town was intelligent and cultivated, and the 



EAELY YEAES 23 

bar of Lexington at that time was composed of a 
high type of able men. It was also a place of com- 
mercial importance and a manufacturing centre. 
As early as 1797 it possessed a " public theatre and 
a company of actors." In the Navigator, published 
in Pittsburg in 1801, this description of the town 
appears : "Lexington, in fact, is a place of great 
business, and the inhabitants seem peculiarly and 
happily calculated to enjoy their situation, and the 
hospitality and friendship of each other. The 
prevailing disposition in the people makes the 
place very lively and highly agreeable to 
strangers. ' ' 

A student of the times says: "The society of 
those early days was primitive only in the sense of 
being somewhat colored by its primitive environ- 
ment, and in possessing certain uncouth elements 
inseparable to a frontier settlement. It was far from 
being immature, or unpolished, or illiterate. The 
settlers brought with them the high ideals of the 
1 Old Dominion.' The husbands and brothers came 
fresh from the training hands of the most vigorous 
and intellectual race of men the world has ever seen, 
and in not a few instances the pupils had outstripped 
their masters." l 

One of the members of the Lexington bar was 
George Nicholas, a statesman as well as an eminent 
lawyer. "His powers of argumentation, " it is re- 
lated, "were of the highest order and his knowl- 
edge of the laws and institutions of his country 
placed him in the first rank of distinguished men 
by whose wisdom and patriotism they were estab- 
1 Samuel M. Wilson, Early Bar of Fayette County. 



24 HENKY CLAY 

lished. A member of the [Virginia] convention 
that ratified the Constitution of the United States, 
he was the associate of Madison, of Randolph, and 
of Patrick Henry, and he came to Kentucky in the 
fulness of his fame and in the maturity of his intel- 
lectual strength." ! He was the first Attorney- 
General of Kentucky, appointed by Isaac Shelby, 
the first Governor, and Humphrey Marshall in his 
History of Kentucky, said of him : "If the Consti- 
tution of Kentucky could be ascribed to any one 
man, it should doubtless be to Colonel George 
Nicholas, who took the lead in the convention to 
which he was justly entitled by his superiority of 
talents and acquirements, in the use of which he 
was known to be liberal. The resemblance observ- 
able in the Constitution of Kentucky to that of the 
United States may be accounted for by his admira- 
tion of the merits of the original, and the distin- 
guished part he had taken in the convention of 
Virginia in favour of its adoption. " 

Another member of the bar was John Breckin- 
ridge, who became Attorney -General under Presi- 
dent Jefferson. As a lawyer none excelled him and 
few were his equals. 

James Brown, the first Secretary of State of 
Kentucky, was also a member of the Lexington 
bar at this time. He was a man of great culture 
and legal ability. After the purchase of Louisiana 
he removed to New Orleans, where he aided Edward 
Livingston to prepare the Civil Code of Louisiana, 
He was twice a United States senator from Louisiana, 
and he was appointed by President Monroe Minister 
1 From a speech by Governor Charles Morehead. 



EARLY YEAES 25 

to France, being continued in that office by Presi- 
dent John Quincy Adams. 

Perhaps the most remarkable member of the 
group, however, was Joseph Hamilton Daviess, who 
at twenty -five was considered to have the best judi- 
cial mind in Kentucky, and who was the first lawj^er 
from the West to make a speech in the Supreme 
Court of the United States. 

Such were the men among whom Henry Clay 
began the practice of law. He himself said in a 
speech made at Lexington on June 6, 1842: "I 
obtained a license to practice the profession from the 
judges of the Court of Appeals of Virginia and 
established myself in Lexington in 1797, without 
patrons, without the means of paying my weekly 
board, and in the midst of a bar uncommonly dis- 
tinguished by eminent members. " 

At this time there was much litigation over the 
titles of land which had been granted by Virginia 
to settlers in Kentucky. Many of these grants were 
made to soldiers who had served in the Revolution- 
ary War, and the land had never been surveyed and 
was not definitely indicated by the warrants, " two 
white oaks and a sugar- tree" being considered 
sufficient marks in many instances. Sometimes 
half a dozen grants covered the same area and the 
courts were filled with suits involving the land laws 
of Virginia and Kentucky. In the settlement of 
these claims Henry Clay won much distinction, and 
in criminal cases also his ability was unusual, it 
being shown in the records of the courts wherein he 
practiced that no prisoner ever defended by him 
received capital punishment. ' * I immediately 



26 HENRY CLAY 

rushed into a successful and lucrative practice," he 
said, in 1842, in recalling his early years at the 
Lexington- bar. "When I was a youth," writes 
James O. Harrison in his Reminiscences of Mr. 
Clay, " I was curious to learn, from those who had 
heard his early efforts, the impression he made on 
the public at the beginning of his career. ' He was 
great from the beginning,' was the general reply." l 
So sudden a success would be difficult to under- 
stand without a knowledge of the personality of the 
man. On this subject Mr. Harrison continues : 

" Mr. Clay was six feet one inch in height, with- 
out being fleshy or bulky and was of commanding 
presence, especially when aroused. Though his 
long limbs were somewhat loosely put together, yet 
he was never awkward or seemingly embarrassed. 
His complexion was unusually fair, his eyes were 
gray and when excited full of fire. His forehead 
was high, with a tendency to baldness, his nose was 
prominent and very slightly arched and finely 
formed. His mouth was unusually large— a long 
and deep horizontal cut— without being uncouth, 
and his hair, when a young man, exceedingly white. 
If ever there was magnetism in the human voice it 
was in his. Its tone always harmonized with the 
toue of his emotion, and never failed to rivet atten- 
tion and touch the heart. Strangers, persons who 
never saw him and who, of course, never felt the 
potency of his presence and manner, can hardly 
understand the sort of impression made on others by 
what was called the magnetism of the man. 

" He was naturally sympathetic, hopeful, buoy- 
1 Mr. Harrison's MS. Memoirs. 



EAELY YEAES 27 

ant. He was not subject to moods of despond- 
ency, or gloom, though during his long life he had 
many heavy afflictions to meet and to bear. His 
buoyancy, so characteristic of the man in his prime, 
never died out, though tempered by time. It gave 
charming freshness to his conversation even when 
sinking uuder the heaviness of age. Whatever the 
occasion or his mood, or whatever the company or 
subject of conversation, there was something in his 
presence and manner which impressed those around 
him that within his personality and beneath that 
manner there was a power, a force of character to 
be respected, feared, followed and honored. Had 
this quiet force been arrogantly, or ostentatious] y 
displayed, it would have broken the charm that 
made him so attractive and at the same time so 
commanding. " ' 

Among the early settlers of Lexington was 
Colonel Thomas Hart, who had come to Kentucky 
from Hagerstown, Md., in 1794. He was a member 
of the famous Henderson Company, which accom- 
plished so much for the early colonization of Ken- 
tucky, and he was the owner of vast tracts of land 
there and in Tennessee. Soon after his arrival in 
the West he became a resident of Lexington, where 
he established himself as a merchant and a trader. 
He was a man of great enterprise and integrity, and 
a public-spirited citizen. The doors of his hospi- 
table home were always open to friend and stranger, 
and perhaps no one had a wider acquaintance all 
through the Western country, where he was held in 
high esteem. In 1797 he organized and became the 

1 Mr. Harrison's MS. 



28 HENKY CLAY 

president of a society called the " Lexington Emi- 
gration Society" whose object was to give infor- 
mal ion concerning the laud about the towu, and to 
offer inducements to industrious farmers and 
mechanics to settle in that region. 

On April 11, 1797, two years after Lexington be- 
came his home, Henry Clay married Lucretia Hart, 
a daughter of Colonel Hart. She was bom in 
Hagerstown, March 18, 1781, and at the time of her 
marriage she was eighteen, while her husband was 
twenty-two years old. The house in which they 
were married still stands on one of the quiet streets 
of Lexington. 

Mrs. Clay was a woman of great dignity, and, 
1 hough never a beauty, she always attracted atten- 
tion and inspired respect. During the early years 
of her husband's official residence in Washington 
she lived there, and while Mr. Clay was Secretary of 
State the weekly levees were held alternately at the 
President's and at his house. "Ashland," the 
beautiful home in Kentucky, was purchased in 1806 
and of it Mr. Clay once wrote to a friend : "Iaiu 
in one respect better off than Moses. He died in 
sight of and without reaching the Promised Laud. 
I occupy as good a farm as any he would have found 
had he reached it, aud ' Ashland ' has been acquired, 
not by hereditary descent but by my own labor." 

This home is within a mile and a half of the 
court-house in Lexingtou and is surrounded by 
beautiful lawus whose towering trees have sheltered 
many distinguished guests attracted thither by the 
lame of Henry Clay. It is of her visit to "Ash- 
land " in 1835 that Harriet Marti neau wrote : 



EARLY YEARS 29 

" I stayed some weeks in the house of a wealthy 
landowner in Kentucky. Our days were passed in 
great luxury, aud the hottest of them very idly. 
The house was in the midst of grounds gay with 
verdure and flowers, in the opening month of June, 
and our favorite seats were the steps of the hall, and 
chairs under the trees. From there we could watch 
the play of the children on the grass-plat, and some 
of the drolleries of the little negroes. The redbird 
and the bluebird flew close by ; the black and white 
woodpecker with crimson head tapped at all the 
tree-trunks, as if we were no interruption. We 
relished the table fare after that with which we had 
been obliged to content ourselves on board the steam- 
boats. Tender meats, fresh vegetables, good claret 
and champagne, with the daily piles of strawberries 
and towers of ice-cream were welcome luxuries. 
There were thirty-three horses in the stables, and we 
roved about the neighboring country accordingly. 
There was more literature at hand than time to profit 
by it. Books could be had at home ; but not the 
woods of Kentucky ; — clear sunny woods with maple 
and sycamore springing up to a height which makes 
man seem dwarfish. The glades with their turf so 
clean, every fallen leaf having been absorbed, re- 
minded me of Ivanhoe. I almost looked for Gurth 
in my rambles. All this was, not many years ago, 
one vast cane-brake, with a multitude of buffalo and 
deer, the pea-vine spreading everywhere, and the 
fertility even greater than now." 1 

For nearly fifty years the beautifying of " Ash- 
land " was a labor of love with both Mr. and Mrs. 
1 Harriet Martineau, Society in America, Vol. I, p. 139. 



30 HENRY CLAY 

Clay, and many of the fine trees which still orna- 
ment the spacious lawns were planted, by him. He 
was Interested in everything pertaining to agri- 
culture, and lie made many horticultural experi- 
ments. He was extremely fond of flowers and his 
taste for ornamental trees and plants was an inspira- 
tion to his neighbors and acquaintances. He took 
great pride also in his horses and cattle, and was in- 
terested in the importation of fine stock from Eng- 
land. 

The home needed the wise care of its owner and 
as Mr. Clay's public services required him to be ab- 
sent, Mrs. Clay gladly undertook its management. 
No woman ever was better qualified for the per- 
formance of the various duties which devolved upon 
her. She was said to be as good a farmer as her 
husband, and no farmer in Fayette County excelled 
him. A farm of six hundred acres, with the added 
care of the servants belonging to the place, was a 
heavy burden for a woman to bear, and of her Mr. 
Clay said at " Ashland, " when expressing thanks 
for a gift which had been made to her by some of his 
admirers: "I have been so long and deeply 
absorbed in public affairs as to be compelled to sur- 
render to this beloved partner of my joys and sor- 
rows the almost sole management of our domestic 
concerns: and how diligently, how nobly she has 
performed the duties thus devolved upon her can 
be known to no mortal save myself alone. Why, 
my friends, again and again has she saved our home 
from bankruptcy." 

Always reserved In manner, this characteristic in- 
creased with age, and after the death of her husband, 



EAKLY YEARS 31 

her life was quiet and secluded. She died on April 
6, 1864. 

Eleven children were born to them, six daughters 
and five sons. Two of the daughters died in infancy 
and two in childhood, one, Eliza H., at the age of 
twelve, during a journey to Washington in 1825. 
^iShe was buried in a little Baptist churchyard in 
Lebanon, O. , and later was reinterred in the cemetery 
at Lexington. The fourth child, Susan Hart, mar- 
ried Martin Duralde of New Orleans and early died 
there, leaving two sons. The fifth child was Ann, 
who married James Erwiu, of New Orleans. Her 
beautiful summer home in Kentucky adjoined 
' ' Ashland ' ' and there was daily intercourse between 
the two households. Mrs. Erwin was a woman of 
rare charm, accomplished and brilliant, and more 
like her father in intellect than any of his children. 
She died suddenly in New Orleans in December, 
1835, and of this sad event Mrs. Samuel Harrison 
Smith, who knew the family intimately, wrote to a 
friend : " Poor Mr. Clay was laughing and talking 
and joking with some friends when his papers and 
letters were brought to him. He naturally first 
opened the letter from home. A friend who was 
with him says his first words were, l Every tie to life 
is broken. ' He continued that day in almost a state 
of distraction, but has, I am told, become more com- 
posed though in the deepest affliction. Ann was his 
pride, as well as his joy, and of all his children his 
greatest comfort. She was my favorite, so frank, 
gay and warm-hearted." * 

1 Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, First Forty Years of Washing- 
ton Society, p. 375. 



32 HENRY CLAY 

In reply to a letter from Mrs. Smith, expressing 
her sympathy, Mr. Clay wrote froni Washington on 
December 31, 1835 : 

" I received your kind letter of this date. From 
no friend could condolence on the occasion of my 
recent heavy loss have come more welcomely, but, 
dear madam, all the efforts of friendship, or of my 
own mind have but little effect on a heart wounded 
as mine is. My daughter was so good, so dutiful, 
so affectionate, her tastes and sympathies, and amuse- 
ments were so identical with my own ; she was so 
interwoven with every plan and prospect of passing 
the remnant of my days, that I feel that I have 
sustained a loss which can never be repaired. 
Henceforth there is nothing in this world but 
duties." 

The eldest son, Theodore Wythe, in consequence 
of an inj ury, became insane, and many years of his 
life were spent in an asylum at Lexington, where he 
died in 1870. 

Thomas Hart Clay, the second son, lived on a 
farm adjoining u Ashland," and his hospitable 
home, " Mansfield," was always a happy gathering 
place. He represented Fayette County in the legis- 
lature, and was appointed by President Lincoln 
Minister to Nicaragua, being later transferred to 
Honduras. He died at "Mansfield," March 18, 
1871. 

James Brown Clay, the third son, was a lawyer 
of ability, and at one time was the partner of his 
father. He represented the United States in Portu- 
gal in 1849 and 1850, having been appointed to the 
post by President Taylor. After the death of his 



EARLY YEARS 33 

father, "Ashland" became his home. He was a 
member of Congress for one term just before the 
Civil War. He died in 1864. 

The fourth son, Henry, was Lieutenant- Colonel 
of the Second Kentucky Regiment in the Mexican 
War and was killed at the battle of Buena Vista in 
1847. 

The youngest son was John Morrison Clay, who 
became a farmer and his home was a part of " Ash- 
land." He died in 1887. 



CHAPTEE II 

ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 

During the session of the Kentucky legislature, 
in 1798, a law was passed authorizing a convention 
to propose amendments to the state constitution, 
and one measure which caused much discussion in 
public meetings and called for many communica- 
tions, printed in the Kentucky Gazette, was that con- 
cerning slavery. 

The Gazette was the only newspaper published 
within five hundred miles of Lexington and all dis- 
cussions of public interest were carried on in its col- 
umns. In a number of letters signed "Scaevola," 
Henry Clay earnestly advocated an amendment to 
the constitution which would set the slaves free. 
In speeches throughout central Kentucky and in his 
communications to the press, he urged gradual 
emancipation, and, though he excited the prejudices 
of many and failed in his endeavor, he did not cease 
to defend his views. He was aware that this was a 
most unpopular measure, " yet, such was the frank- 
ness and manliness of his nature, and so controlling 
his convictions as to the evils of slavery, that he did 
not hesitate to stem the current on that absorbing 
question.' ' ' He said in a speech made at Frankfort, 
at the anniversary of the Kentucky Colonization 
Society, December 17, 1829, in reference to these 

1 Mr. Harrison's MS. 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 35 

early anti-slavery efforts : " More than thirty years 
ago an attempt was made, in this commonwealth, to 
adopt a system of gradual emancipation, similar to 
that which the illustrious Franklin had mainly 
contributed to introduce, in 1780, in the state 
founded by the benevolent Penn. And among the 
acts of my life, which I look back to with most 
satisfactiou, is that of my having cooperated with 
other zealous and intelligent friends to procure the 
establishment of that system in this state. . . . 
We were overpowered by numbers, but submitted 
to the decision of the majority with a grace which 
the minority in a republic should ever yield to such 
a decision. ' ' 

The passage by Congress in 1798 of the Alien and 
Sedition Laws was strongly resented by the inajoritj' 
of Kentuckians, and Governor Garrard, in his mes- 
sage to the legislature, expressed the opinion of the 
people when he denounced the measures as "un- 
constitutional and dangerous to public liberty.' ? 
Meetings were held in all parts of the state to take 
action against them, and Henry Clay made his first 
appearance in political life while addressing the 
people of Lexington in opposition to them. A large 
crowd had assembled in a grove near the town and, 
as was customary in political discussions at an 
earlier day, speakers were at hand on the same 
platform to present arguments upon both sides of 
the subject. The first address was made by the 
distinguished Lexington lawyer, George Nicholas, 
who denounced the favorite laws of John Adams, so 
soon destined to ruin his political future and make 
an end to the old Federal party. When he had 



36 HENRY CLAY 

concluded, the crowd called, " Clay ! Clay!" and 
the young man mounted the stand. He made a 
speech which is said to have moved the people as 
nothing had ever done in the annals of oratory in 
that neighborhood. The Federalist who followed 
found it impossible to proceed ; it was difficult in- 
deed for him to escape from the wrought-up pop- 
ulace without suffering personal injury. Clay and 
Nicholas were borne upon the shoulders of the 
crowd and placed in a carriage, to be drawn amid 
great cheering through the streets of Lexington. 1 
His attitude in opposition to these measures, meant 
to be so restrictive upon the liberties of the people, 
marked the beginning of the career which long 
caused him to be known as the " Great Commoner." 
In the summer of 1803, while Henry Clay was 
absent from Lexington visiting the Olympian 
Springs, then, as now, a fashionable watering-place 
about forty miles from the city, he was nominated 
to represent Fayette County in the state legislature. 
This nomination was made without any solicitation 
on his part and indeed without his knowledge or 
consent. He had shown ability as a young lawyer 
and had also " caught the eye and charmed the ear 
by the fascination of his manner and the melody of 
his voice" ; so it was decided by his fellow citizens 
that he could best represent the county in the House 
of Representatives. At first there seemed little 
chance of his election. His opponents had already 
made great headway in the canvass, having taken 
every advantage of his absence. Learning that 
many were determined to support him, Mr. Clay 

1 Mallory, Life and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 17. 



ENTKANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 37 

returned home and addressed the people. Elections 
at that time and for many years after covered three 
days, and it was not until the evening of the second 
day that he reached Lexington. He was chosen 
almost by acclamation, we are told, and never thence- 
forth was his name presented to the people of Fay- 
ette County, the " Ashland District, " that they did 
not give him their votes with the most enthusiastic 
devotion in an overwhelming majority. 

One of the causes of his election was his advocacy 
of the Lexington Insurance Company. This com- 
pany had been incorporated in 1802 with the object 
of encouraging the extensive cultivation of such 
crops as could be shipped down the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi, and to insure the boats and their cargoes 
from loss on those rivers. The question of repeal- 
ing its charter had been brought forward as an issue 
of the campaign, and when Mr. Clay became aware 
of this, he promptly decided to accept the candidacy. 
After his election he defeated in the legislature 
the attempt to take away the company's franchises. 

His opponent in the election was Felix Grundy, 
a young lawyer about his own age, a man of talent, 
who, like himself, had gained reputation in the de- 
fense of criminal causes. In the following year 
Grundy was elected to the legislature, where he re- 
vived the effort to repeal the charter of the insur- 
ance company, having secured during his canvass 
pledges from other members to vote with him. For 
two days these brilliant young men discussed the 
question in the House, and the interest which they 
created attracted the attention of the Senate, many 
of whose members were constantly in attendance on 



38 HENKY CLAY 

this debate. Grundy was successful iu the House, 
but when the measure was presented to the Senate, 
the decision was reversed, and the company retained 
its charter. Clay's arguments had prevailed. 

Felix Grundy was one of the most influential 
young members of the Lexington bar and it was 
through his exertions that the circuit court system 
was established in Kentucky. He removed to Ten- 
nessee and was a member of Congress from that 
slate from 1811 to 1815. He was elected United 
States senator from Tennessee in 1829 and served 
until 1838, when he became Attorney -General under 
Van Buren. 

While the legislature was in session in 1806, an 
affidavit was filed in the District Court of Kentucky 
by Joseph Hamilton Daviess, charging Aaron Burr 
with treasonable designs against the United States, 
and Mr. Clay soon became involved in the case in 
an historic manner. He had met Daviess before in 
an experience which narrowly escaped being a 
serious ' * affair of honor. ' ' Having bullied and as- 
saulted a tavern-keeper of Kentucky, Daviess felt 
affronted when Mr. Clay took up the case in the 
courts. A challenge to a duel was accepted by Mr. 
Clay, though by good fortune, through the interpo- 
sition of friends, the meeting was avoided. For 
more than a year Daviess had been quietly collect- 
ing information concerning Burr, who had been in 
Kentucky pursuing his own plans, and interesting 
many in them. The sympathies of the people were 
largely with Burr, whose magnetism was extraordi- 
nary ; his fascinations seemed to subdue all who 
came under their spell. He was looked upon as a 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 39 

great democratic leader. Daviess was a strong Fed- 
eralist, a man of marked eccentricity of dress and 
manner and decidedly unpopular. His admiration 
of Alexander Hamilton had led him to assume his 
middle name, and it was generally thought that he 
was influenced in his prosecution of Burr by a 
hatred aroused by Hamilton's death, and that t3ie 
tiling of the affidavit was done more with the pur- 
pose of harassing the man than in an endeavor to 
convict him of treason. Kentucky was strongly de- 
voted to Thomas Jefferson and little sympathy was 
felt for so decided a Federalist. 

Henry Clay began his political career as a Jelfer- 
sonian Democrat and he thought Burr, who now 
aj)plied to him to act as his counsel, a persecuted 
man. Clay believed so implicitly in the innocence 
of the accused that he refused to accept any com- 
pensation for his services, though Burr had written 
from Louisville, November 27, 1808: "Informa- 
tion has this morning been given to me that Mr. 
Daviess has recommenced his prosecution and in- 
quiry. I must entreat your professional aid in this 
business. It would be disagreeable to me to form a 
new connection, and various considerations will, it 
is hoped, induce you, even at some personal incon- 
venience, to acquiesce in my request. I shall, how- 
ever, insist on making a liberal pecuniary compen- 
sation. ... I pray you to repair to Frankfort 
on receipt of this." 

The case was brought before the Federal court in 
Frankfort but the most important witness was ab- 
sent and no indictment was found. Some time later 
Burr was again arrested in Kentucky and he applied 



40 HENRY CLAY 

to Mr. Clay to defend hi in, asserting in the follow- 
ing letter, dated Frankfort, December 1, 1806, that 
he was innocent of any treasonable purposes : "I 
have no design, nor have I taken any measure to 
promote a dissolution of the Union, or a separation 
of any one or more states from the residue. I have 
neither published a line on the subject, nor has any 
one through my agency, or with my knowledge. I 
have no design to intermeddle with the government 
or to disturb the tranquillity of the United States, or 
of its territories, or any part of them. I have 
neither issued, nor signed, nor promised a commis- 
sion to any person for any purpose. I do not own 
a musket, nor does any person for me, by my au- 
thority, or with my knowledge. My views have 
been fully explained to, and approved by several of 
the principal officers of government, and, I believe, 
are well understood by the administration, and seen 
by it with complacency. They are such as every 
man of honor and every good citizen must approve. 
Considering the high station you now fill in our 
national councils, I have thought these explanations 
proper, as well to counteract the chimerical tales 
which malevolent persons have so industriously cir- 
culated, as to satisfy you that you have not espoused 
the cause of a man in any way unfriendly to the laws, 
the government, or the interests of his country." 

Henry Clay had just been elected by the legisla- 
ture of Kentucky a United States senator to fill the 
unexpired term of John Adair, who had resigned, 
and at first he felt that lie could not comply with 
such a request ; but he finally yielded, and Burr 
again went free, the jury having decided that 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 41 

the evidence was not sufficient to indict him. 
Shortly after Mr. Clay's arrival in Washington as a 
senator, he was shown by President Jefferson a let- 
ter written in cipher by Burr, which clearly proved 
the latter' s treasonable designs. To his father-in- 
law, Colonel Hart, Henry Clay wrote from Wash- 
ington on February 1, 1807 : 

'* It seems that we have been much mistaken about 
Burr. When I left Kentucky I believed him both 
an innocent and a persecuted man. In the course 
of my journey to this place, still entertaining that 
opinion, I expressed myself without reserve, and it 
seems owing to the freedom of my sentiments at 
Chillicothe I have exposed myself to the strictures 
of some anonymous writer at that place. They give 
me no uneasiness as I am sensible that all my friends 
and acquaintances know me incapable of entering 
into the views of Burr. It appears from the Presi- 
dent's message to Congress, in answer to the reso- 
lution of the House of Representatives calling for 
information, that Burr had formed the no less dar- 
ing projects than to reduce New Orleans, subju- 
gate Mexico, and divide the Union. The energetic 
measures taken by the administration have, I pre- 
sume, entirely defeated him. Dr. Bolleman . and 
Mr. Swartjzfout, two of his most criminal agents at 
New Orleans, having been arrested in that city by 
the military authority, were sent to this place. 
They have attempted to effect their liberation by a 
writ of habeas corpus, but after a full investigation 
of their case they were sent to jail by one of the 
courts of this district for treason. When they are 
to be tried has not yet been decided." 



42 HENRY CLAY 

Mr. Clay's enemies made use of the fact that he 
had been Burr's attorney and charged him with be- 
ing also Burr's partisan. Many years afterward the 
story was revived by the Jackson party. On Oc- 
tober 15, 1828, Clay wrote from Washington to his 
brother-in-law, Dr. Richard Pindell, of Lexington : 

"My dear Doctor : 

1 ' I observe that some of the Jackson party 
in Kentucky, for the purpose of withdrawing public 
attention from the alleged connection betweeu Gen- 
eral Jackson and Colonel Burr, have gotten up a 
charge against me of participation in the schemes of 
the latter. I have not myself thought it necessary to 
notice this new and groundless accusation, but 
prompted by the opinions of some of my friends, and 
actuated also by the desire to vindicate the memory 
of an inestimable but departed friend, who fell in 
the military service of his country, I communicate 
the following statement which you are at liberty to 
publish. 

"Public prosecutions were commenced in the 
Federal court of Kentucky against Colonel Burr, in 
the fall of 1806. He applied to me, and I engaged 
as his counsel, in connection with the late Colonel 
John Allen, to defend him. The prosecutions were 
conducted by the late Colonel Joseph Hamilton 
Daviess, a man of genius, but of strong prejudices, 
who was such an admirer of Colonel Hamilton that 
after he had attained full age he (Colonel D.) 
adopted a part of his name as his own. 

"Both Colonel Allen and myself believed that 
there was no ground for the prosecutions, and that 
Colonel Daviess was chiefly moved to institute them 
by his admiration of Colonel Hamilton, and his 
hatred of Colonel Burr. Such was our conviction 
of the innocence of the accused that, when he sent 
us a considerable fee, we resolved to decline accept- 
ing it and accordingly returned it. 



I 



ENTBANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 43 

" We said to each other, Colonel Burr has been 
an eminent member of the profession, has been At- 
torney-General of the state of New York, is prose- 
cuted without cause in a distant state, and we ought 
not to regard him in the light of an ordinary cul- 
prit. The first prosecution entirely failed. A sec- 
ond was shortly afterward instituted. Between the 
two I was appointed a senator of the United States. 
In consequence of that relation to the general gov- 
ernment, Colonel Burr, who still wished me to ap- 
pear for him, addressed the note to me of which a 
copy is herewith transmitted. I accordingly again 
appeared for him, with Colonel Allen, and, when 
the grand jury returned the bill of indictment not 
true, a scene was presented in the court-room which 
I had never before witnessed in Kentucky. There 
were shouts of applause from an audience, not one 
of whom, I am persuaded, would have hesitated to 
level a rifle against Colonel Burr, if he believed that 
he aimed to dismember the Union, or sought to 
violate its peace, or overthrow its Constitution. 

"It is not true that the professional services of 
either Colonel Allen or myself were volunteered, al- 
though they were gratuitous. Neither of us were 
acquainted with any illegal designs whatever of Colo- 
nel Burr. Both of us were fully convinced of his 
innocence. A better or braver man, or a more ar- 
dent and sincere patriot than Colonel John Allen 
never lived. The disastrous field of Eaisin on which 
he fell attests his devotion to his country. 

" The affidavit of a Mr. John Dowling has been 
procured and published to prove that I advised him 
to enlist with Colonel Burr, and that I told him that 
I was going with him myself. There is not one 
word of truth in it so far as it related to me. The 
ridiculous tale will be credited by no one who knows 
both of us. The certificate of some highly respect- 
able men has been procured as to his character. 
His affidavit bears date on the third, and the certifi- 



44 HENRY CLAY 

cate, on a detached paper, on the fourth instant. I 
have no doubt that it was obtained on false preten- 
ces, and with an entire concealment of its object. I 
was at the period of the last prosecution preparing 
to attend the Senate of the United States at the seat 
of government, many hundred miles in an opposite 
direction from that in which it afterward appeared 
Colonel Burr was bound. So far from my having 
sent any message to Mr. Dowling when I was last in 
Lexington, I did not then ever dream that the ma- 
lignity of party spirit could fabricate such a charge 
as has been since put forth against me. 

" It is not true that I was at a ball given to Colo- 
nel Burr in Frankfort. I was at that time in 
Lexington. It is not true that he ever partook of 
the hospitality of my house. It was at that time a 
matter of regret with me that my professional en- 
gagements, and those connected with my departure 
for Washington, did not allow me to extend to him 
the hospitality with which it was always my wont to 
treat strangers. He never was in my house, accord- 
ing to my recollection, but once, and that was the 
night before I started to this city, when, being my- 
self a stranger in this place, he delivered me some 
letters of introduction, which I never presented. 

u On my arrival here, in December, 1806, I be- 
came satisfied, from a letter in cypher to General 
Wilkinson, and from other information communi- 
cated to me by Mr. Jefferson, that Colonel Burr had 
entertained treasonable designs. At the request of 
Mr. Jefferson, I delivered to him the original note 
from Colonel Burr to me, of which a copy is now 
forwarded, and I presume it is yet among Mr. Jef- 
tVrson's papers. I was furnished with a copy of it, 
in the handwriting of Colonel Coles, his private 
secretary, which is with my papers in Kentucky. 

" This, my dear doctor, is a true and faithful ac- 
count of my connection with Colonel Burr." 

Mr. Clay in 1815, in New York, soon after his re- 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 45 

turn from Ghent, met Burr, who approached him 
with outstretched hand which he declined to accept, 
and the two men never saw each other again. 

Years afterward Mr. Clay was appealed to in be- 
half of Mrs. Blennerhassett, who was old and needy, 
and he presented to Congress a memorial asking for 
aid for her, but she died in great poverty before the 
petition could be acted upon. 

Henry Clay took his seat in the Senate, December 
29, 1806. He still lacked several months of the req- 
uisite age, but this disability seems not to have oc. 
curred to him, or to his friends in the Kentucky 
legislature, by whom he was elected. He was im- 
mediately appointed to prominent places upon com- 
mittees. He wrote to his father-in-law : " My re- 
ception in this place has been equal, nay, superior, 
to my expectation. I have experienced the civility 
and attention of all whose acquaintance I was desir- 
ous of making.' 7 

Mr. Clay's first speech in the Senate was in ad- 
vocacy of a bill to provide for building a bridge 
across the Potomac, of the need of which after in- 
vestigation he was convinced. He also advocated 
the appropriation of land on the Kentucky shore 
for the construction of a canal at the Falls of the 
Ohio Eiver, and though the subject of government 
appropriations for internal improvements was new, a 
committee, of which he was made chairman, was ap- 
pointed to consider this proposal. Four days after 
he took his seat in the Senate, he offered a resolu- 
tion concerning the circuit court system. 

In the letter to Colonel Hart, from which quota- 
tions have already been made, he wrote : "lam 



46 HENRY CLAY 

attempting in Congress several things for the good, 
as J suppose, of our country. A bill at my instance 
has passed the Senate to extend to Kentucky and 
the other Western states the circuit court system 
of the United States. By this measure, if it passes 
the other house, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio will 
have the advantage of two judges upou the Federal 
bench instead of one, and the circuit judge who 
presides in those states will also attend the superior 
bench, and carry with him there a knowledge of the 
local laws and decisions of those states. I have also 
proposed a resolution to appropriate a quantity of 
land to assist in opening a canal at the Falls. I fear 
the shortness of the session will prevent the success 
of this measure. ■ 1 

In the brief period in which Clay served in the 
Senate to fill out Adair's unexpired term, from 
December 29, 1806, to March 4, 1807, he was a most 
attractive figure, spoken of by a fellow member as 
" the ardent, eloquent and chivalrous Henry Clay.' ' 
His thorough self-possession was combined with the 
utmost grace and dignity, and his ease of manner 
and sunny nature won for him the enduring affec- 
1 ion of his colleagues. 

Upon the adjournment of Congress Mr. Clay re- 
turned to Kentucky, soon again to be elected to 
represent Fayette County in the lower house of the 
legislature. At the opening of the session he was 
chosen Speaker. In this service he became the wit- 
ness of a singular manifestation of the patriotism of 
the Kentuckians. This patriotism was shown by 
the hatred of everything British, and induced a 
motion to prohibit the reading in the courts of the 



ENTKANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 47 

state of any British decision, or any British ele- 
mentary work on law. Henry Clay left the Speaker' s 
chair and in one of the greatest intellectual efforts of 
his life, he showed the fatal consequences which 
would certainly follow should this motion prevail. 
The feeling of resent nieiit toward England was still 
very strong. Among the multitude that feeling was 
almost universal and many members favored the 
motion. In the spirit of compromise, Mr. Clay 
proposed an amendment, that the exclusion of 
British decisions and legal opinions should extend 
only to those which had been given since July 4, 
1776, as up to that time the laws of Great Britain 
and of the American Colonies were derived from 
the same great source. He denounced as barbarous 
the spirit which would " wantonly make wreck of a 
system fraught with the intellectual wealth of cen- 
turies." His impassioned appeal overcame all op- 
position and the amended resolution was adopted 
unanimously. Thus at the early age of thirty Henry 
Clay saved for Kentucky, " that system with which 
is associated everything valuable and venerable in 
jurisprudence." 

His patriotism was shown later on also, when he 
brought into the legislature a series of resolutions 
expressing approval of the embargo which had been 
established by the United States against Great Brit- 
ain, and denouncing the British Orders in Council. 
The embargo, approved at an extra session of Con- 
gress called by Jefferson, in the latter part of 1807, 
prohibited the departure of any American vessel 
from any port of the United States and bound to 
any foreign country, except by special direction of 



48 HENRY CLAY 

the President. This measure had been preceded by 
a non-importation act passed in 1806, which pro- 
hibited the introduction into the United States of 
certain articles of British production. 

Both of these, however, were but weak, retalia- 
tory measures induced by the loss which had been 
occasioned to the United States by the destruction 
of vessels of her merchant-marine by Great Britain, 
and by Great Britain's insistence upon the right of 
search of American vessels for British seamen, and 
the impressment into her service of such seamen as 
that nation determined, upon her own judgment, 
owed allegiance to her government. Provably 
British men-of-war took from American vessels on 
the high seas, and even in American waters, a large 
number of seamen who both by birth and residence 
were citizens of this country. 

The British Orders in Council, concerning which 
so little is known by the ordinary reader of that 
period of American history, consisted of three 
measures, the first of which was taken by the Brit- 
ish government, May 16, 1806, and which declared 
the whole coast of Europe from the Elbe to Brest, a 
distance of 800 miles, in a state of blockade. The 
second Order in Council was issued in January, 
1807, and forbade neutrals from engaging in the 
coasting trade with ports hostile to Great Britain. 
The third prohibited all neutral trade with France 
or her allies, except through Great Britain. These 
famous Orders in Council were replied to by two 
orders issued by Napoleon, the first from Berlin, on 
November 21, 1806, declaring the British Islands in 
a state of blockade, forbidding all correspondence 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 49 

or trade with thein, and defining as contraband all 
English products or manufactures ; the second from 
Milan on December 17, 1807, decreeing that every 
vessel which should submit to search by British 
cruisers, or pay any tax or license to the British 
government, or be bound to or from any British 
port should be denationalized and sequestered. 1 

In December, 1808, Henry Clay introduced a 
series of resolutions in the Kentucky legislature, 
and the vote upon those measures indicated the 
unanimity of feeling in Kentucky as to British ag- 
gressions. These resolutions approved of the em- 
bargo, denounced the British Orders in Council, 
pledged the aid of Kentucky in whatever the gen- 
eral government might determine upon in resisting 
British exactions, and declared that President Jef- 
ferson was entitled to the gratitude of the country 
for the "ability, uprightness, and intelligence 
which he had displayed in the management both of 
our foreign relations and domestic concerns." 

This endorsement of Jefferson was especially ob- 
jected to by Humphrey Marshall, who was then 
serving in the legislature. He was an extreme 
Federalist, a man of strong prejudices, who despised 
Jefferson as he did Clay. He violently denounced 
the resolutions, but without effect, as his own was 
the only vote against their adoption. 

Another resolution then offered by Clay, recom- 
mending that the members of the legislature should 
wear only such clothes as were the product of home 
manufacture, enraged Marshall beyond endurance. 
He assailed Clay with the utmost virulence, denoun- 

1 Hunt, Life of James Madison. 



50 HENRY CLAY 

ring the resolution as the claptrap of a dema- 
gogue, to which Clay replied with equal warmth, 
but in more parliamentary language. This alterca- 
tion caused Clay to send Marshall a challenge to 
mortal combat, which was accepted and the duel 
took place across the Ohio River from Shippings- 
port, and just below the month of Silver Creek, 
hid. The account of this duel, written and sub- 
scribed to by the seconds, who were Colonel James 
F. Moore for Henry Clay, and Major John B. 
Campbell for Humphrey Marshall, was published 
in the Kentucky Gazette of January 31, 1809. Both 
combatants were slightly wounded when the sec- 
onds interfered and prevented a continuation of hos- 
tilities. 

Mrs. Clay was then at home at " Ashland," the 
beginnings of which estate Henry Clay had pur- 
chased in November, 1806, and her sister, Mrs. 
Price, who resided in Lexington, having heard that 
Mr. Clay had gone out to fight a duel, went to be 
with her until news of the result should be ob- 
tained. Mrs. Clay received her sister without ex- 
hibiting any excitement, and the two ladies spent 
the day together, no word of the encounter passing 
between them. Mrs. Price imagined that Mrs. 
Clay knew nothing of the meeting and, therefore, 
did not speak to her about it. In the afternoon a 
messenger brought a note to Mrs. Clay which she 
read and at once handed to Mrs. Price, saying, 
"Thank God, he is only slightly wounded." On 
reading the note Mrs. Price exclaimed, " Why ! 
sister, I did not think you knew Mr. Clay had gone 
out to fight a duel, as you haven't said one word to 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 61 

me about it." Such was the self-control of that 
quiet, horue-loving woman. 

In after years a son of Humphrey Marshall, 
Thomas A. Marshall, was a representative in the 
Federal House of Representatives, still later becom- 
ing Chief- Justice of Kentucky. He was held in the 
highest esteem in the state and his nature and char- 
acter were such as to create and justify the high 
consideration accorded him. He married a niece of 
Mrs. Clay, and was one of the two men chosen by 
Henry Clay as executors of his last will. 

In the winter of 1809-1810 Clay was again sent to 
the Senate of the United States to fill another unex- 
pired term, that of Buckner Thruston, who had re- 
signed his place while he yet had two years to serve. 
The first recorded speech of Clay's congressional 
career was made on April 6, 1810, on domestic 
manufactures, which he favored then as he had in 
the legislature of Kentucky two years before, de- 
veloping his argument, however, in a much more 
elaborate way. 1 

The subject of a protective tariff of which he later 
became the particular advocate and with which his 
name, as with the internal improvement policy, is 
so closely identified, was not directly at issue. An 
amendment had been made to a bill appropriating 
money for the purchase of military supplies and it 
was a question of instructing the Secretary of the 
Navy to give a preference to hemp, cordage and 
sail-cloth of domestic manufacture. Clay entered 

1 Neither the Annals of Congress nor the newspapers of the 
time report the speeches of Mr. Clay which he made in the Sen- 
ate while he was a member of that body in 1806-1807. 




62 HENRY CLAY 

the discussion as au advocate of the industries of 
Kentucky. He thought that there would soon come 
a time when we should not want "a pound of 
Russian hemp." " The Western country alone," 
he said, "is not only adequate to the supply of 
whatever of this article is requisite for our own 
consumption, but is capable of affording a surplus 
for foreign markets." Commerce was opj)Osing the 
policy of domestic manufactures. " She is," he 
remarked, " a flirting, flippant, noisy jade, and if 
we are governed by her fantasies we shall never 
put off the muslins of India and the cloths of 
Europe." He had confidence, however, that "the 
yeomanry of the country, the true and genuine 
landlords of this tenement called the United States, 
disregarding her freaks, will persevere in reform 
until the whole national family is furnished by 
itself with the clothing necessary for its own use." 

Earlier " a gentleman's head could not withstand 
the influence of solar heat unless covered with a 
London hat ; his feet could not bear the pebbles or 
frost unless protected by London shoes ; and the 
comfort or ornament of his person was only con- 
sulted when his coat was cut out by the shears of a 
tailor 'just from London.' " There were pleasure 
ami pride he thought "in being clad in the pro- 
ductions of our own families" and with youthful 
ardor he exclaimed: "Others may prefer the 
cloths of Leeds and of London, but give me those 
of Humphreysville." 1 

He rapidly made his way as a speaker in the 

'Colonel David Humphreys' thriving industrial settlement in 
Connecticut. 






ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 53 

Senate, and his manner, as well as the subject of his 
discourses, compelled the attention of his colleagues. 
He was even afforded an opportunity to develop a 
foreign policy in connection with President Madi- 
son's proclamation of October 27, 1810, on the sub- 
ject of Florida. 

The disputed question of boundary seemed now 
to call for some definite settlement. Insurrection 
and intrigue suggested immediate action and it 
was boldly begun. Though discovered by Sebas- 
tian Cabot, Florida was formally taken possession 
of by Ponce de Leon. It was ceded to England in 
1 7o3, by the Treaty of Ryswick, but in 1783 was re- 
stored to Spain by the Treaty of Paris, to remain in 
possession of that nation until it was purchased by 
the United States for $5,000,000 in 1819. The 
Mississippi River was discovered by the French in 
1688, and eleven years afterward a settlement was 
made by them near the point of discovery. Pos- 
session was ceded to Spain in 1763 but it was restored 
to France in 1800, and the country was purchased 
by Jefferson from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 by 
the payment of $15,000,000. 

The question involved in Madison's proclamation 
was the boundary line between Florida, then in pos- 
session of Spain, and the Louisiana Territory, that 
magnificent domain purchased from Bonaparte. 
Madison himself had no doubt whatever as to the 
boundary fixed by the purchase being the line of the 
Rio Perdido, though Spain asserted that Florida ex- 
tended west to the Mississippi River. The Spanish 
demand, if acceded to by the United States, would 
have given Spain the states of Alabama and Mis- 



54 HENRY CLAY 

sissippi. The President and his friends, quoting 
from the treaties between France and Spain, called 
attention to the cessions and retrocessions of the one 
country to the other, as well as to the cession of the 
eastern portion, exclusive of New Orleans, to Great 
Britain in 1762, and the cession of this territory by 
Great Britain to Spain twenty-one years later. This 
caused the title of all the Louisiana country, as far 
east as the Rio Perdido, to revert to France and to be 
in France's possession when the Louisiana Purchase 
was made by Jefferson in 1803. 

It is true that the United States had failed to oc- 
cupy that portion between the Rio Perdido and New 
Orleans, commonly called West Florida, and to 
which Spain made claim, largely, if not wholly, be- 
cause the Spanish garrisons had not been ejected by 
the United States. In his proclamation of October 27, 
1810, President Madison asserted the claim of the 
United States to West Florida, and also stated that 
the reason of the delay in its occupation was not the 
result of any distrust on the part of this nation as to 
its title to the country, but simply because of our 
conciliatory views. He announced, therefore, that 
possession should be taken of that territory "in the 
name and behalf of the United States." 

A bill was then introduced in the Senate on 
December 18, 1810, providing that the territory of 
Orleans, one of the two territories into which the 
Louisiana tract had been divided, " shall be claimed 
and is hereby declared to extend to the river 
Perdido," and that the laws in force in the territory 
of Orleans shall extend over the district in question. 
The Federalists of the Senate took issue with this 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 65 

view. Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts, and 
Outerbridge Horsey of Delaware, denied that the 
United States had any title to West Florida, and be- 
came the advocates of Spain in this cause, denouncing 
the proceeding of President Madison as an act of 
spoliation upon an unoffending and a helpless power. 

Henry Clay came forward, championing the ad- 
ministration in a speech replete with knowledge 
gained by careful study of the whole question, and 
with great irony congratulated Mr. Horsey on 
espousing the part of the foreign nation in the 
question of territorial title between that nation and 
his own. So comprehensively, yet concisely, did 
he expound the position of the United States ; so 
accurately did he define the cessions and retroces- 
sions of France, England and Spain concerning 
Florida and Louisiana, that nothing else seemed to 
be needed. By a citation of the different actions of 
the three nations, he clearly demonstrated France's 
title to all the territory ceded by Napoleon to the 
United States on the payment of $15,000,000. 

Horsey, during his speech favoring the preten- 
sions of Spain to the territory of West Florida, had 
brought forward, as an additional reason for grant- 
ing those claims, the displeasure that the proceed- 
ings taken by the President might create in Great 
Britain, which was presumed to bean ally of Spain. 
This allusion to the possible offense that might be 
given Great Britain by the United States in further- 
ing her right to the territory she had purchased 
from France, had not the persuasive influence with 
the young Republicans of the Senate that Mr. 
Horsey and a majority of the Federalists of the 



66 HENKY CLAY 

Senate seemed to think it should have. On the 
contrary, it merely fed their indignation, and Clay, 
the youngest member of the Senate, but the leader 
of the party in that body, replied to Mr. Horsey in 
a speech full of withering scorn. He said : 

" Is the time never to arrive when we may man- 
age our own affairs without the fear of insulting his 
Britannic majesty ? Is the rod of the British power 
to be forever suspended over our heads? Does Con- 
gress put an embargo to shelter our rightful com- 
merce agaiust the piratical depredations committed 
upon it on the ocean ? We are immediately warned 
of the indignation of offending England. Is a law 
of non-intercourse proposed ? The whole navy of 
the haughty mistress of the seas is made to thunder 
into our ears. Does the President refuse to continue 
a correspondence with a minister who violates the 
decorum belonging to his diplomatic character by 
giving and repeating a deliberate affront to the 
whole nation ! We are instantly menaced with the 
chastisement which English pride will not fail to 
inflict. Whether we assert our rights by sea, or 
attempt their maintenance by land, whithersoever we 
turn ourselves, this phantom incessantly pursues us. 
Already has it had too much influence on the coun- 
cils of the nation. Mr. President, I most sincerely 
desire peace and amity with England ; I even prefer 
an adjustment of all differences with her before one 
with any other nation. But if she persists in a de- 
nial of justice to us, or if she avails herself of the 
occupation of West Florida to commence war upon 
us, 1 hope and trust thai all hearts will unite in a 
bold and vigorous vindication of our rights." 



j 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 57 

AY i tk the greatest irony he continued : 

,k Allow me, sir, to express niy admiration at the 
more than Aristidean justice which, in a question 
of territorial title between the United states and a 
foreign nation, induces certain gentlemen to espouse 
the pretensions of the foreign nation." 

The conciseness of Clay's statement of historical 
facts as to the condition which prompted Madison's 
proclamation, and the bill, the result of that proc- 
lamation, which was then under debate, so forcibly 
impressed the Senate that the endorsement of the 
President's action was no longer in doubt. His 
speech, and the enthusiasm with which it was re- 
ceived by the country, confirmed Clay's leadership 
of the Republicans in Congress and made him the 
recognized champion of the administration. 

The Bank of the United States, which was a part 
of Alexander Hamilton's scheme of national finance, 
had been granted a charter by Congress in 1791, for 
a term of twenty years, which would expire in 1811. 
Henry Clay opposed the renewal of its grant of 
powers. He had been so instructed by the legisla- 
ture of Kentucky, and he contended that seven- 
tenths of the stock was held by British subjects. 
Foreseeing the crisis with England, now so rapidly 
approaching, he thought that fact would give her 
an influence in this country which she might exer- 
cise to our great disadvantage. Another reason for 
his opposing the renewal of the charter was a belief 
that the bank under its first charter had abused its 
powers and had endeavored to serve the views of the 
Federalists. It was asserted that instances of its 
oppression for that purpose had occurred at both 



58 HENEY CLAY 

Philadelphia and Charleston, and while this was 
denied by the friends of the bank, in his judgment, 
the charge had been satisfactorily established. He 
seems to have thought also that the charter of the 
bank was to some extent extra-constitutional ; 
that is, that certain powers exercised by the bank 
were not specifically granted to it, but were wrongly 
inferred from the charter. The plan for its renewal 
was defeated in the Senate by the casting of the vote 
of the Vice-President, and in the House by a ma- 
jority of only one vote. 

Henry Clay's arguments against the bank were 
very powerful, and it may be said that the instruc- 
tions he received from the legislature of Kentucky 
to oppose its recharter were but lightly regarded as 
compared with his own convictions, though his 
course placed him in an unfortunate position when 
a few years later, as the great Whig leader, a na- 
tional bank became one of his leading policies. Per- 
haps the enthusiasm of youth and his intense loyalty 
to America, then distinguishing all his utterances 
and sweeping him and his party on into the War of 
1812, will alone serve to explain his attitude toward 
the bank. He asserted that the Duke of Northum- 
berland was its principal stockholder. If the Prince 
of Essling, the Duke of Cadore and other French 
dignitaries were owners of the bank, he wondered 
whether the Federalists would be the advocates of 
its recharter. Then the danger of French influence 
would resound throughout the nation. The peril of 
British influence was just as great at this hour, — 
when the two nations were already on the " very 
brink of war.' ' 



CHAPTER III 

THE WAR OF 1812 

At the expiration of the senatorial term for which 
he had been chosen on the resignation of Buckner 
Thruston, Mr. Clay returned to Kentucky. So 
clearly had he exhibited his ability and his influence 
in the Senate, and so greatly had he impressed his 
constituency with his intellectual superiority, that 
upon his refusal to accept the nomination for the 
Senate, he was elected to the House of Representa- 
tives by a large majority. A special session of Con- 
gress had been called to meet on November 4, 1811, 
and Henry Clay then took his seat as a member of 
the House. On the same day he was elected Speaker 
by seventy-five of the 128 votes cast. His opponent 
was William W. Bibb of Georgia. 

Clay's election was an unparalleled occurrence in 
the history of the American Congress. Never hav- 
ing been a member of the House before, his personal 
acquaintance with its members must have been very 
limited, yet they at once recognized his superior 
fitness for the position, when the country's condition 
was critical to a high degree. The constant en- 
deavors made by Presidents Jefferson and Madison 
to secure just treatment for the United States from 
both France and Englaud had invariably failed. 
Neither nation would make any equitable arrange- 
ment through which the various actions of each, so 



60 HENRY CLAY 

destructive to this country's commerce, would be 
terminated. On the part of England, her course in 
the impressment of seamen from American ships 
even in American waters, claiming as she frequently 
did the allegiance of native-born citizens, seizing 
them upon American ships and putting them to 
service upon her own, and constituting herself the 
sole judge of their nationality, as well as positively 
asserting a right so to do, was regarded by the peo- 
ple of this country as the least tolerable of the wrongs 
she perpetrated upon them. So thought Henry 
Clay, and with him were John C. Calhoun, William 
Lowndes, Langdon Cheves, Felix Grundy and other 
young " war hawks," all of whom, with burning 
enthusiasm, resented British aggressions, and de- 
termined no longer to submit to them. President 
Madison's message, sent in to Congress on its assem- 
bling, November 4, 1811, recommended " very de- 
cisive measures for the vindication of our national 
honor and the redress of our wrongs. ' ' There were 
members of Congress, remainders of the old Feder- 
alist party, representing those elements, the most 
irreconcilable of which gave expression to their 
views in the Hartford Convention where they opposed 
in iota the measures advocated by the President. 

Clay now spoke in vigorous language in favor of 
plans to strengthen the army and the navy. He 
dwelt upon the spirit of American commercial en- 
terprise which was being curbed by the interferences 
of Great Britain. It was a matter of importance for 
the West, no less than for the East. He had heard 
of a vessel built at Pittsburg, which crossed the At- 
lantic and entered the harbor of Leghorn. The 



THE WAR OF 1812 61 

master of the vessel laid his papers before the cus- 
toms officer of the place, to be told that there was 
no uch port as Pittsburg. The master procured a 
map of the United States, pointed out the Gulf of 
Mexico, and then traced his way up the Mississippi 
more than 1,000 miles, to the mouth of the Ohio, 
following the line of that river 1,000 miles still 
higher to the point from which he had begun his 
voyage. Thus did he voice the enthusiasm of the 
young West and inject the fillip of a larger, prouder 
nationality into the sluggish views of the older 
states. 

Henry Clay was no defender of Napoleon, but he 
did protest against the statesmanship of the old Fed- 
eralists which now and for long had spent its vigor 
in baiting him and all that was French. He had 
heard Bonaparte denounced by "every vile and op- 
probrious epithet our language, copious as it is in 
terms of vituperation, affords." He had been com- 
pared to "every hideous monster and beast from 
that mentioned in the Revelations down to the most 
insignificant quadruped. ' ' He had been called ' ' the 
scourger of mankind, the destroyer of Europe, the 
great robber, the infidel, the modern Attila and 
Heaven knows by what other names." And he con- 
tinued : 1 1 Gentlemen appear to me to forget that 
they stand on American soil, that they are not in 
the British House of Commons. . . . Gentle- 
men transform themselves into Burkes, Chathams 
and Pitts of another country and forgetting, from 
honest zeal, the interests of America, engage with 
European sensibility in the discussion of European 
interests." In stentorian tones he called upon 



62 HBNBY (LAY 

Americans to develop and assert a nationality of 
their own. 

The President's message had been referred to a 
select committee of which Mr. Clay had appointed 
Peter B. Porter, a member from New York, to be the 
chairman. Porter made a report to the House, 
memorable as giving a concise statement of the ac- 
tions of Great Britain, which were a sufficient reason 
for the adoption of the most strenuous measures that 
could be enforced against that nation. In reference 
to these continued outrages the report said : 

a To wrongs so daring in character, and so dis- 
graceful in execution, it is impossible that the peo- 
ple of the United States should remain indifferent. 
We must now tamely and quietly submit, or we 
must resist by those means which God has placed 
within our reach. Y'our committee would not cast 
a slander over the American name by the expression 
of a doubt which branch of this alternative will be 
embraced. The occasion is now presented when the 
national character, misrepresented and traduced for 
a time, by foreign and domestic enemies, should be 
vindicated. . . . But we have borne with injury 
until forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. The 
sovereignty and independence of these states, pur- 
chased and sanctified by the blood of our fathers, 
from whom we received them, not for ourselves only, 
but as the inheritance of our posterity, are deliber- 
ately and systematically violated. And the period 
has arrived when, in the opinion of your committee, 
it is the sacred duty of Congress to call forth the pa- 
triotism and resources of the country. By the aid 
of these and with the blessing of God we confidently 



THE WAR OF 1812 63 

trust we shall be enabled to procure that redress 
which has been sought for by justice, by remon- 
strance, and forbearance in vain." 

Shortly after the report of the committee was re- 
ceived, President Madison in a message to Congress 
on April 1, 1812, recommended "the immediate 
passage of an embargo on all vessels then in port, or 
hereafter arriving, for a period of sixty days." 
This was at once referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations, and a bill, reported by Mr. 
Porter and referred to the Committee of the Whole, 
was adopted. In the Senate, however, the period of 
the embargo was extended to ninety days and the 
amendment being accepted by the House, the bill 
became a law on April 4th. This extension of time 
was due to the Federalists and to some moderate 
Republicans, who favored it because it gave greater 
opportunity for the pacific negotiation for which 
they still hoped, in spite of the constant rebuffs and 
contemptuous refusals with which England met 
every effort made by Jefferson and Madison, to ob- 
tain justice at her hands. 

In forming the important committees of the House, 
Clay had purposely put them under the control of 
the war party, of which he himself was the most 
conspicuous member. His energy in urging even a 
larger army and a greater increase of the navy than 
the President had recommended to meet the crisis, 
' ' corresponding with the national spirit and ex- 
pectations," was irresistible ; and when taunted by 
the Federalists with the question, " What are we to 
gain by war?" his reply, made with startling 
emphasis, was, " What are we not to lose by peace f 



64 HENRY CLAY 

Commerce, character, a nation's best treasure, 
honor ! " 

President Madison was nominated for reelection 
in May, 1812. The act declaring war with Great 
Britain was passed June 18th, and the next day 
Madison issued a proclamation declaring that war 
already existed between Great Britain and the 
United States. This policy naturally met with 
violent opposition from the same small number 
who had fought the embargo, Randolph, Quincy 
and Pitkin being the leaders and spokesmen of the 
faction. In his denunciation of the members of the 
war party, and their vigorous prosecution of war 
measures, Mr. Quincy, in a memorable speech, sur- 
passed even " Randolph of Roanoke" in unparlia- 
mentary language. He coupled with his fierce and 
unsparing denunciation an attack upon Jefferson, 
which was as uncalled for as it was unwarranted. 

Henry Clay displayed his indefatigable zeal in 
arousing public sentiment. His eloquence in 
enumerating the wrongs that had been perpetrated 
by Great Britain upon our seamen, and upon our 
shipping through the Orders in Council burned. 
Nothing was left to this country, he asserted, but 
war or degradation. The war, he said, was declared 
because Great Britain arrogated to herself the regu- 
lating of our foreign commerce under the delusive 
name of retaliatory Orders in Council, because she 
persisted in impressing American seamen, because 
she had instigated the Indians to commit hostilities 
against us, and because she refused indemnity for 
her past injuries upon our commerce. It had been 
asked — u Why not declare war against France, also, 



THE WAR OF 1812 65 

for the injuries she inflicted upon American com- 
merce, and the outrageous duplicity of her conduct? ' ' 
( 1 1 will concede to gentlemen all they ask about the 
injustice of France toward this country," he said. 
"I wish to God that our ability was equal to our 
disposition to make her feel the sense that we enter- 
tain of that injustice." Having begun war with 
Great Britain, however, the United States could not 
also proceed to war with France, and England's ag- 
gressions were in every respect greater than those of 
the other country. 

Henry Clay declared that, of all England's out- 
rageous acts, he considered that of the impressment 
of our seamen into British service as the most 
serious, exceeding even that of the Orders in Coun- 
cil. No matter what were the assertions of Great 
Britain, the actual state of affairs, in regard to her 
impressing American seamen, was that she came by 
her press-gangs on board of our vessels and seized 
our native as well as our naturalized seamen, to 
drag them into her service. It was wrong, he said, 
that we should have to prove their nationality ; it 
was the business of Great Britain to identify her 
subjects. " The colors that float from the masthead 
should be the credentials of our seamen." 

Madison's reelection was ascertained by Congress 
on February 18th, on counting the vote cast for him as 
the candidate of the Eepublican party, and that cast 
for De Witt Clinton, his opponent. On May 24th 
Henry Clay was again elected Speaker of the House, 
the candidate in opposition being Mr. Pitkin of 
Connecticut, who together with Randolph and 
Quincy voiced the most hostile enmity to the 



66 HENKY CLAY 

embargo and to the proclamation of war. Quincy 
still spoke with great bitterness, not only for him- 
self but for his party and section. Clay he found 
" bold, aspiring, presumptuous, with a rough, over- 
bearing eloquence, neither exact nor comprehensive, 
which he had cultivated in the contests with the 
half-civilized wranglers in the county courts of Ken- 
tucky, and quickened into confidence and readiness 
by successful declamations at barbecues and elec- 
tioneering struggles." ' 

The proposal to invade Canada with a possible 
view to its annexation, hinted at by Henry Clay, he 
denounced as " cruel, wanton, senseless and wicked." 
The men about him reminded him of " the giant in 
the legends of infancy, 

" ' Fee, faw, fum, 

I smell the blood of an Englishman, 
Dead or alive I will have some.' " 

He expressed, he said, "the disgust of all New 
England." There was mildness indeed in the allu- 
sion to "very young politicians, their pin feathers 
not yet grown" in comparison with some remarks 
of Mr. Quincy as he further developed his discourse. 
' ' It is not for a man whose ancestors have been 
planted in this country now for almost two cen- 
turies," he said in passion ; " it is not for a man who 
has a family, and friends, and character, and chil- 
dren, and a deep stake in the soil ... to 
hesitate or swerve a hair's breadth from his coun- 
try's purpose and true interests because of the yelp- 
ings, the bowlings and snarlings of that hungry 

1 Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, p. 255. 



THE WAR OF 1812 67 

pack which corrupt men keep directly or indirectly 
in pay with the view of hunting down every man 
who dares develop their purposes — a pack composed, 
it is true, of some native curs, but for the most part 
of hounds and spaniels of very recent importation, 
whose backs are seared by the lash, and whose 
necks are sore with the collars of their former 
masters." 

The cabinet for some time had been composed of 
u three Virginians and a foreigner" (Jefferson, 
Madison, Monroe and Gallatin). Although it was 
Mr. Clay's li untamed, ferocious tongue " which was 
detailed to reply to this speech, 1 the New Englander, 
when the discussion was done, still had a great ad- 
vantage over his opponent in a reputation for the 
use of intemperate speech. While he had tongue 
or pen, Mr. Quincy wrote to his wife, "the ig- 
norant part of the nation shall not assume to itself 
with impunity to lord it over the intelligent, nor the 
vicious over the virtuous." Quincy accused Clay of 
leading a committee of " war hawks " to wait upon 
Madison, and to tell him that his endorsement of 
their policy would be the price of his being the 
party candidate in 1812. 2 

Eandolph, when not denouncing the war and the 
party favoring it, was also badgering and taunting 
the Speaker. In a conversation with a friend, about 
this time, he said of Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, 
who was a prominent member of the Committee on 
Foreign Eelations : " They have entered the House 

1 Quincy, p. 296. 

2 Ibid., p. 259; cf. Hunt, Life of James Madison, p. 316; 
Henry Adams, Albert Gallatin, p. 456. 



68 HENEY CLAY 

with their eye on the presidency, and mark my 
words, sir, we shall have war before the end of the 
session." ' "It was as easy to go to war as to get a 
wife," said this oftentimes half-mad but very able 
son of Virginia, " and many a poor blockhead had 
he seen strutting his hour because he had after vast 
exertion married a shrew." 2 He insisted that it 
was an " anti- ministerial war," one not more agree- 
able to the old Republicans than to the old Federal- 
ists ; a thing for a new breed of " flaming patriots," 
now clamoring for ascendency at their country's 
cost. Having offered a resolution that it was " in- 
expedient to resort to war with Great Britain," he 
began at once to debate it, whereupon Clay put the 
question to the House whether it would proceed to 
the consideration of the resolution. The House de- 
clined to do so, and Eandolph then received the 
first impulse to his intense dislike of Henry Clay^ 
whose treatment of him in this instance was only 
such as would have been accorded any other mem- 
ber. 3 

For the first year of the war every possible un- 
toward happening to the American arms seems to 
have befallen them. On the 29th of August Gen- 
eral William Henry Harrison, who had been made 
a brigadier-general in the American army, wrote 
the following letter to Henry Clay : 

' i Cincinnati, August 29, 1812. 
" I write to you, my dear sir, amid a thousand 
interruptions, and I do it solely for the purpose of 

1 Garland, Life of Randolph, Vol. I, p. 306. 
" Annul* of Congress for 1811-1812, p. 713. 
'Garland, Life of Randolph, Vol. I, p. 299. 



THE WAR OF 1812 69 

showing you that you are present to my recollec- 
tion under circumstances that would almost justify 
a suspension of every private feeling. The rumored 
disasters upon our northwestern frontier are now 
ascertained to be correct. The important point of 
Mackinac was surrendered without an effort ; an 
army captured at Detroit after receiving three shots 
from a distant battery of the enemy (and from the 
range of which it was easy to retire) ; a fort (Chi- 
cago) in the midst of hostile tribes of Indians, 
ordered to be evacuated, and the garrison slaugh- 
tered ; the numerous northwestern tribes of Indians 
(with the exception of two feeble ones) in arms 
against us, is the distressing picture which presents 
itself to view in this part of the country. 

' ' To remedy all these misfortunes, I have an 
army competent in numbers, and in spirit equal to 
any that Greece or Rome ever boasted of, but desti- 
tute of artillery, of many necessary equipments, and 
absolutely ignorant of every military evolution ; nor 
have I but a single individual capable of assisting 
me in training them. But I beg you to believe, my 
dear sir, that this retrospect of my situation, far from 
producing despondency, produces a contrary effect 
and I feel confident of being able to surmount them 
all. 

"The grounds of this confidence are a reliance 
on my own zeal and perseverance, and a perfect 
conviction that no such materials for forming an 
invincible army ever existed as the volunteers 
which have marched from Kentucky on the present 
occasion. . . ." 

On the next day General Harrison wrote a second 
letter to Mr. Clay as follows : 

" Cincinnati, August SO, 1812. 
"My dear Sir : 

" After having been absent from home for so 
many months, you will no doubt think it unreason- 



70 HENRY CLAY 

able that you should be asked to take a considerable 
journey, and that ou an occasion entirely foreign to 
yc^ir ordinary public duties. I know you, however, 
too well not to believe that sacrifices of private con- 
venience will be always made to render service to 
your country. Without further preamble then 1 
inform you that, in my opinion, your presence on 
the frontier of this state would be productive of 
great advantages. I can assure you that your ad- 
vice and assistance in determining the course of 
operations for the army (to the command of which 
1 have been designated by your recommendation) 
will be highly useful. You are not only pledged in 
some manner for my conduct, but for the success of 
the war. For God's sake, then, come on to Piqua 
as quickly as possible, and let us endeavor to throw 
off from the administration that weight of reproach 
which the late disasters will heap upon them. If 
you come, bring on McKee with you, whom you 
will overtake upon the road. An extract from this 
letter will be authority for the commanding officer 
of his regiment to let him come." ] 

Since General Harrison was so anxious for the 
presence of Henry Clay near the field of action, it is 
not to be wondered at that President Madison had 
at one time determined to send the Speaker's 
name to the Senate for the office of major-general. 
In the opinion of Albert Gallatin, there was no 
man so "prompt and fruitful in expedients for an 
exigency." It is said that Mr. Madison was dis- 
suaded from his purpose only by the statement of 
the fact that there was no one who could fill his 
place in the national councils, a statement which no 
thoughtful mind would have tried to controvert. 
Henry Clay was the impelling spirit of the war with 

1 Private Correspondence of Henri/ Clay, pp. 20-22. 



THE WAR OF 1812 71 

Great Britain. The country at large, barring an 
element in New England, was strongly in its favor, 
knowing that for years our government had made^ 
every endeavor to effect an amicable arrangement 
of the differences, that all such attempts had been 
treated with scorn, and then contemptuously re- 
jected, and that the indignity of the Orders in 
Council, as well as the impressment into foreign 
service of American seamen, was continued in full 
force against our country. A vast majority of the 
people of the United States felt, therefore, that a 
settlement by negotiation was absolutely futile. 
While it was true that the Orders in Council had 
been revoked at about the time of the declaration of 
war, it was equally true that the revocation of those 
orders was not made because of American protests. 
Anyhow, there remained the impressment of our 
seamen, and the unpaid claim for the loss of our 
shipping, the latter no small sum, when it is con- 
sidered that more than nine hundred American 
ships had been destroyed by England during her 
war with Napoleon, while she most arbitrarily im- 
posed certain restrictive laws against neutral pow- 
ers, and carried her dictum into effect. 

Henry Clay's impassioned appeals to his country- 
men, his logical recital and clear presentation of the 
facts of England's transgressions upon American 
rights, especially in the matter of the impressment 
of American seamen, which he considered the most 
flagrant of her self- authorized acts against this na- 
tion, had a wide-spread influence. They exerted a 
powerful effect in Congress, where they were de- 
livered, and thrilled the people of the West and 



72 HENRY CLAY 

South, inspiring a patriotic ardor against which 
the opposition of Quincy, Randolph and Pitkin 
had but a local effect, though it may be noted that 
the governors of Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut refused to allow the militia to leave their 
states, in pursuance of a requisition made by the 
President under the authority of an act of Congress, 
alleging the requisition to be unconstitutional. 
Henry Clay was the most strenuous advocate of his 
party for preparation for war with Great Britain, 
and that war was the war of the young members of 
Congress. They even found it necessary to go to 
President Madison and urge and persuade him to 
act with greater promptness ; he must, said they, 
relinquish all expectation of securing peace through 
negotiation. 

The Speaker's chair, with the authority of that 
position in Congress, was largely delegated to an- 
other, while Clay with untiring energy was pleading 
for action, and justifying every move made toward 
that end. He determined that the aggressions of 
Great Britain should cease ; that American com- 
merce should no longer be restrained by Great 
Britain ; and that merely the proclamation of that 
country that certain ports of France, with which 
power she was at war, were closed against neutral 
nations, gave her the right to destroy American 
shipping for the infraction of this prohibition, 
which rested on her proclamation alone, should 
no longer be tolerated by the United States. Clay 
held that no abridgment of the free trade of the 
United States with other nations should be per- 
mitted to be exercised by Great Britain ; that 



THE WAR OF 1812 73 

this country should uo longer submit to the im- 
pressment of our seameu by Great Britain, her 
claim to do which he said was "the assertion of 
an erroneous principle, and of a practice not con- 
formable to the asserted principle, a principle which 
if it were theoretically right must be forever prac- 
tically wrong, a practice which can obtain counte- 
nance from no principle whatever, and to submit to 
which, on our part, would betray the most abject 
degradation." We are told, said he, "that Eng- 
land is a proud and lofty nation, which, disdaining 
to wait for danger, meets it half-way. Haughty as 
she is, we once triumphed over her, and if we do 
not listen to the counsels of timidity and despair, 
we shall again prevail. In such a cause, with the 
aid of Providence, we must come out crowned with 
success ; but if we fail, let us fail like men, lash our- 
selves to our gallant tars, and expire together in one 
common struggle, fighting for free trade and sea- 
men's rights." 

Always restively active in matters in which he 
was interested, Henry Clay was particularly so dur- 
ing the year 1813. In one way or another he was 
furthering the war with all the enthusiasm of his 
patriotic nature, an enthusiasm which the dis. 
asters to American arms had no effect in diminish- 
ing. 

Men like Randolph and Quincy were left at home 
by their constituents as the military ardor swept 
the country and put them out of sympathy with the 
popular cause. They now had the time to write 
letters to each other and to congratulate themselves 
that they were no longer "under the abject do- 



74 HENRY CLAY 

minion of Mr. H. Clay & Co." ' Mr. Clay's com- 
mand of the political situation was quite absolute, 
and he had won it fairly at the early age of thirty - 
nve, by his gifts of public speech and by his reason- 
ing faculties which had been so skilfully and indus- 
triously employed in behalf of a movement calcu- 
lated to win the applause of the great mass of the 
people. 

Because of the unfortunate course of affairs in the 
field, however, and the determined opposition of 
New England, President Madison and his advisers 
were quite willing to listen to the Czar of Russia's 
suggestion of peace when it came, through his 
minister at Washington, early in 1813. Albert 
Gallatin, who could no longer make himself useful 
in the Treasury Department, and Senator James A. 
Bayard, an excellent old Federalist of Delaware, 
were asked to join John Quincy Adams, our 
Minister to Russia at St. Petersburg, and await 
developments. 

So eager had the President been to set his envoys 
about their task that he had not thought to get 
from Great Britain an expression of her views. It 
was soon learned that mediation was not desired by 
her, and that the Russian emperor's interposition 
was quite gratuitous. Nevertheless, she expressed 
a willingness to discuss the terms of a possible peace 
at a city of her own selection, preferably London or 
Gotten burg, in Sweden, though the place of meeting 
was later changed to Ghent, in the Netherlands. 
When these facts became known to President 
Madison, he added to the commission the names of 

1 Randolph to Quincy, June 20, 1813. Quincy 's Life, p. 332. 



THE WAR OF 1812 75 

Jonathan Eussell, then the American Minister to 
Sweden, and Henry Clay, making it a body of five 
members. \ ^ 

Clay resigned the speakership on January 14, 
1814, and set off to join his colleagues. Great 
Britain's envoys, three in number, kept the Ameri- 
cans waiting for about a month, but at the end of 
that time all were upon the scene. The negotia- 
tions began in August. Mr. Clay continued to 
represent in diplomacy the policies which had 
engaged his attention as a leader in Congress, and in 
much the same manner. If we may judge from 
John Quincy Adams's journal, he was still the 
leader of young America, full of the bounding spirit 
of the West. Enthusiastically national, rather im- 
patient of diplomatic restraints, belligerent in the 
face of contradiction, he was a factor of the greatest 
importance in the councils of the commission. He 
was the fighting antithesis of John Quincy Adams, 
steeped in the Puritan traditions of New England, 
confident in his learning and tenacious of the nice- 
ties of speech and behavior to which he had been 
bred. The able Gallatin was the peacemaker, 
soothing and allaying their differences when they 
seemed so great as almost to preclude reconciliation. 

Mr. Adams found in the young Kentuckian a 
" harsh, angry and overbearing tone." "It al- 
wavs offends me in him," Mr. Adams wrote in his 
diary one day, in December, 1814, though he 
thought that being sometimes not free from this 
himself he should excuse it, " as the involuntary ef- 
fusion of a too positive temper." l Clay vigorously 

1 Memoirs, Vol. Ill, p. 103. 



76 HENRY CLAY 

defended the Western, which was the larger Ameri- 
can view of the war, and set forth what his sec- 
tion was to gain by the treaty. The very surprising 
demands of Great Britain that peace should be con- 
cluded by the grant of a large territory south of the 
Great Lakes, to be occupied by the Indians under 
British guaranty ; the relinquishment of the right of 
the United States to keep armed vessels on the 
Lakes ; the cession of a strip of Maine, over which 
to construct a road from Halifax to Quebec ; and 
the renewal of the English right to navigate the 
Mississippi, which had been enjoyed before 1783, 
were not acceptable to any commissioner. When, 
however, it was a question of which particular pro- 
visions should be accepted by way of compromise, 
there was a great contest between Massachusetts and 
Kentucky, between the East and the West. The 
proposal to introduce an article giving the United 
States the right to fish and cure fish in British juris- 
diction as a quid pro quo for the right to navigate 
the Mississippi at once aroused the lion in Clay. 
The fisheries were no return for such a privilege, he 
declared with stirring emphasis. He always "lost 
his temper," says Mr. Adams, when this subject 
was discussed. 

It was argued in vain that any surrender of fish- 
ing rights, or of the territory of Maine, " would 
give a handle to the party there, now pushing for a 
separation from the Union and for a New Eng- 
land confederacy." Clay retorted that " there was 
no use in trying to conciliate people who would not 
be conciliated. There might at some future day be 
a party for separation in the Western states also. 



THE WAR OF 1812 77 

The government too often sacrificed the interests of 
its best friends for those of its bitterest enemies." ' 
Mr. Clay declared that " he would do nothing to 
satisfy disaffection and treason ; he would not yield 
anything for the sake of them. ' ' 2 When the com- 
missioners had under discussion an article giving 
the British the right to trade with the Indians, he 
walked up and down the room, repeating five or six 
times, "I will never sign a treaty upon the status 
ante beUum with the Indian article, so help me 
God.' 7 ;i Thus did the discussions of the commis- 
sioners proceed with a good deal of the rough and 
tumble of a legislative chamber, Gallatin now and 
again bringing "all to unison by a joke." 4 

1 Memoirs, Vol. Ill, p. 72. 
8 Ibid., p. 101. 

3 Ibid., p. 103. 

4 Something concerning the relations subsisting between the 
commissioners may be gleaned from these words which are con- 
tained in a long letter written by Jonathan Russell to Mr. Clay 
from Stockholm on October 15, 1815 : 

" If the individual thus sought [John Quincy Adams] should 
be a kind of laborious pedant without judgment enough to be 
useful, or taste sufficient to be admired ; who is suspected of 
forgetting his country in the pursuit of little personal or family 
interests ; and who is known frequently to forget himself in a 
paroxysm of unmanageable passion ; who had had the virtue to 
mask his participation in the resentments of his father under the 
affectation of patriotism ; and the patriotism to desert his party 
when it had lost its power ; who adopts the most extravagant 
opinions in the hectic of the moment and defends them with 
obstinacy and vehemence while the fever lasts and thus reduces 
himself to the miserable alternative of being constantly absurd 
or ridiculously inconsistent ; who has neither dignity to com- 
mand nor address to persuade and is therefore as unqualified to 
rule others as he is to govern himself ; who believes the national 
prosperity to consist in the prosperity of a district and circum- 
scribes his love of country within the confines of the state in 
which he was born; who would barter the patriotic blood of the 
West for blubber and exchange ultra-Alleghany scalps for cod- 
fish," etc., etc. 



78 HENRY CLAY 

Finally, the day before Christmas, 1814, an agree- 
ment with the British representatives was reached 
and the peace was concluded. It was not on terms 
very heroic for the United States. Nothing was 
said in the treaty about the right of search, the im- 
pressment of sailors and the freedom of international 
commerce. "Free Trade and Seamen's Eights," 
for which the war had been begun and waged, were 
quietly passed over. The country's gain had not 
been as great as many, and Mr. Clay preeminently, 
had desired ; but he had the joy of knowing that 
he had had a hand in bringing to naught the pre- 
posterous demands with which Great Britain had 
begun the negotiations. Whatever real disappoint- 
ment was felt because of the result was assuaged by 
Jackson's impressive victory at New Orleans, in a 
battle fought, it is true, after *peace had been 
signed, though before the news of it had reached 
America. 

Mr. Clay, after completing his tasks at Ghent, 
was instructed to visit London with Adams and 
Gallatin to see if the work just ended could not be 
supplemented by a treaty of commerce. He was 
loath to do so, and lingered for a time in Paris. 
After he learned of the victory at New Orleans, he 
exclaimed, "Now I can go to England without 
mortification, " and he crossed the Channel. Noth- 
ing of material benefit to the United States, however, 
was obtained by negotiations covering three months' 
time. He reached home in September, 1815, after 
an absence of about eighteen months, and possibly 
barring the triumphant Jackson, found himself the 
hero of the war. Upon stepping ashore in New 



THE WAR OF 1812 79 

York, he was dined by a distinguished company of 
citizens, and his progress to Lexington was a series 
of ovations. On October 7th, he was the guest at a 
public dinner in his own little city in Kentucky. 
His friends gathered to honor him. Toasts were 
proposed to — 

' ' Our negotiators at Ghent : their talents have 
kept pace with the valor of our arms, in demon- 
strating to the enemy that these states will be free." 

" Our guest, Henry Clay : we welcome his return 
to that country whose rights and interests he has so 
ably maintained at home and abroad." 

One of his florid biographers asserts that his re- 
ception in Kentucky was "like that of a dutiful 
and affectionate son in the long and passionate 
embrace of a beloved mother. ' ' ' His speech to his 
admirers, it may be objected, was still that of a jingo, 
but he had the facts on his side. There had been 
tremendous gain in the strengthening of a national 
sense at home, and the enforcement of respect for 
the republic abroad. Great Britain had never quite 
relinquished her hope of regaining the territory she 
had lost on this continent by the Revolution. As 
late as 1860, she still regarded the country as a loose 
union of contentious states of a highly primitive 
nature. Mr. Clay spoke truly at Lexington : 

" Abroad our character, which at the time of its 
[the war's] declaration was in the lowest state of 
degradation, is raised to the highest point of eleva- 
tion. It is impossible for any American to visit 
Europe without being sensible of this agreeable 
change, in the personal attentions which he receives, 
1 Mallory, Vol. I, pp. 86-87. 






80 HENRY CLAY 

in the praises which are bestowed on our past 
exertions, and the predictions which are made as to 
our future prospects. At home a government, 
which, at its formation, was apprehended by its best 
friends, and pronounced by its enemies to be in- 
capable of standing the shock, is found to answer 
all the purposes of its institution. . . . Our 
prospects for the future are of the brightest kind." 
Thus was the way prepared for Clay immediately 
to enter that course of public life, for the enrichment 
and aggrandizement of the country by a vigorous 
domestic policy with which he became so promi- 
nently identified during the ensuing thirty years. 
Old leaders and old parties left the stage ; Clay, 
Webster, Calhoun and Benton came on. 



CHAPTER IV 

CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 

That Mr. Clay now had his eyes set upon the 
presidency has been assumed by his principal biog- 
raphers. 1 Indeed, it was constantly said of him 
during his lifetime that his ambitions warped his 
views and shaped his policies. It has been re- 
marked, with very great truth, that characteristics 
in Clay, fancied or real, would always be brought 
forward to his disadvantage, while similar traits 
in others did not occasion even p ssing comment. 2 
According to the American theory of government, 

1 Compare Schurz, for instance. 

2 " It has been objected to Henry Clay that'he was ambitious. 
So he was. But in him ambition was a virtue. It sought only 
the proper, fair objects of honorable ambition, and it sought 
these by honorable means only — by so serving the country as to 
deserve its favors, and its honors. If he sought office, it was 
for the purpose of enabling him by the power it would give to 
serve his country more effectually and preeminently, and, if he 
expected and desired thereby to advance his own fame, who 
will say that it was a fault ? Who will say that it was a fault 
to seek and desire office for any of the personal gratifications it 
may afford, so long as those gratifications are made subordinate 
to the public good ? 

"That Henry Clay's object in desiring office was to serve 
his country, and that he would have made all other objects 
subservient, I have no doubt. I knew him well. I had full 
opportunity of observing him, his most unguarded moments 
and conversations, and 1 can say that I have never known a 
more unselfish, a more faithful and intrepid representative of 
the people, of the people's rights, and the people's interests, 
than Henry Clay." — From Address on the Life and Death of 
Henry Clay, by John J. Crittenden. 



82 HENRY CLAY 

it is a laudable desire for a man to entertain a wish 
to be President. It was formerly a more familiar 
ambition than in these days, and each male child 
was encouraged in the thought that he might at some 
future day sit in the White House. Clay ' s interests 
and talents, the appreciation that he merited and 
received and the great prominence which he attained 
naturally led him to hope, and indeed expect, that 
he might at length be the choice of the nation for a 
post many times occupied during his life by men 
vastly inferior to him in every essential particular. 

Quite plainly one of these was James Monroe, who 
came to the office in succession to James Madison, 
and whose Secretary of State Mr. Clay may have 
thought that he should have been upon his return 
from Ghent. Madison had asked him to take the 
Russian mission and then to become Secretary of 
War. Monroe repeated the offer of the War port- 
folio and the mission to England, but chose as his 
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, thus in so 
far as tradition and precedent could avail indicating 
Mr. Adams for the successorship in the presidential 
office. The step from the State Department to the 
White House was regularly taken in this period of 
the country's history. 

Mr. Adams, in point of accomplishments and ex- 
perience, was rather clearly marked out for this dis- 
tinction, and it is by no means fair to suppose that 
Mr. Clay's future course in opposition to several ad- 
ministration policies was prompted by any personal 
chagrin. It is natural to think that he preferred 
the "give and take" and the jostle of a legislative 
body where his preeminent powers as an orator 



CONSTBUCTIVE POLICIES 83 

caused him to shine before the world. His position 
as Speaker of the House, to which he was returned 
in December, 1815, his friends and neighbors in 
Kentucky having immediately reelected him to 
Congress, was one of great influence and he could 
have found very little in the cabinet or a foreign mis- 
sion to compensate for the enjoyment which came to 
him from active part in parliamentary life. 

The Eepublican majorities in both branches of 
Congress were overwhelming. The Federalists had 
been almost obliterated by their unpopular policy 
in combating the war, and it was the task of Clay, 
with other young men, to prepare the way for a 
realignment of parties. It is very likely true that he 
did not have the philosophical backgrounds for a 
work of this kind, and to say that his course was 
not always a consistent one is easy. Nevertheless, 
he rapidly formulated his views and was soon in a 
fair way either to reform the Eepublican party upon 
lines of his own making, or to constitute himself the 
leader of a new party. With Jackson coming for- 
ward as the heir to Kepublicanism, which soon as- 
sumed the more popular name of Democracy, it was 
his destiny to take the alternative course and assist 
at the birth of the Whig party, which became the 
natural inheritor of the loose-constructionist view of 
the Constitution. His constructive policies in re- 
gard to the upbuilding of native industries, the de- 
velopment of our internal resources by the making 
of roads and canals and through other means, his 
pleas for the national defense, marked him as a man 
who held the nation above the state and the sense 
above the letter of the Constitution. He hewed his 



84 HENKY CLAY 

way with marked determination, and with few lapses 
in that virtue, so highly esteemed in political life, 
consistency. His imagination, which led him to 
picture glowing scenes, the fine periods which he 
could so well use in the description of them to others, 
effectually marked him for the constructive side in 
j)olitics and until the end this was his course, inter- 
rupted as it was only by his famous services em- 
ployed again and again in pacifying the sections in 
the slavery dispute, growing more ominous year by 
year. 

Now that the war was at an end, it would have 
been truly Jeffersonian, if he had still been a fol- 
lower of the leader whom he acknowledged when he 
began his political life, to have been an advocate of 
a reduction of taxation. This he could not be. He 
had visions of a greater nation and he wished it to 
be defended against future wars. Not only would 
he maintain the present augmented naval and land 
forces, but he would still further increase them. 
He favored the construction of military roads and 
canals and steam batteries for the Mississippi and 
the Chesapeake. "In short," said he, " I would 
act seriously, effectually act, on the principle that 
in peace we ought to prepare for war." 

But this was only a part of what he wished the 
government to be. It must undertake "the great 
work too long delayed of internal improvement," 
which was to include "a chain of turnpike roads 
and canals from Passamaquoddy to New Orleans." 
He also announced a policy which would "effec- 
tually protect our manufactories,' ' and " not so much 
for the sake of the manufacturers themselves, as for 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 85 

the general interest." "Let us now do something 
to ameliorate the internal condition of the country/' 
said he to his friends in the House. " Let us show 
that objects of domestic no less than of foreign policy, 
receive our attention." 1 

These policies were supplemented by another, the 
establishment of a national bank, to put to rights 
the disordered currency system, and to make the 
government an efficient agency in the important 
work of internal upbuilding, which Mr. Clay so el- 
oquently advocated. It is true, and much was made 
of this by his foes, that, while a member of the Sen- 
ate in 1811, he had opposed the renewal of the bank's 
charter, largely it would seem because he believed 
it to be a foreign corporation ; i. e. } a corporation 
whose stock was principally owned abroad. It 
stood in the way of his plans for the War of 1812. 
On the constitutional issue he had been wrong on 
that occasion rather than now, because a bank fitted 
perfectly into his system of politics. He had the 
wisdom to see this and the courage to announce a 
change of his attitude on the question. "He pre- 
ferred to the suggestions of the pride of consistency 
(he evident interests of the community, and deter- 
mined to throw himself upon their candor and jus- 
tice." 2 

Little weight need be given to the consideration 
that in 1811 the legislature of Kentucky had directed 
him to oppose the bank, while in 1816 the popular 
sentiment of his state seemed to favor it. Possibly 
in 1811 this fact may have had its influence with 

1 Colton, Life, Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. V, pp. 98-99, 

*/&;<*., p. 79. 



86 HENEY CLAY 

him, since he was then a young man. Now he was 
a leader who was well above the need of receiving 
instructions from any local source. The plain truth 
seems to be that Mr. Clay was now his natural self, 
and when he fully understood the part which one of 
his type of mind was to play in our politics, he 
deviated very slightly from the indicated way. His 
changes were as nothing compared, for example, 
with Webster's on the tariff question and on the 7th 
of March, 1850, and those which altered the entire 
complexion of John C. Calhoun as a public man. l 

The session resulted in a charter being granted 
for twenty years to the Second Bank of the United 
States, which served its useful purposes to the nation 
until the period expired, when, arousing all the ele- 
mental ire of Jackson, it was swept away. The 
protective tariff and the internal improvement 
features of the Young Republican programme were 
developed with the same rapidity and with practi- 
cally little opposition. George M. Dallas of Penn- 
sylvania, the Secretary of the Treasury, voicing the 
industrial ambitions of his state, proposed a scheme 
of duties, which in all its substantial parts became 
the Tariff Law of 1816. Clay, Calhoun and their 
friends quoted the arguments of Hamilton on the 
subject of protection against the Federalists, who 
were now so far out of accord with their own his- 
tory that they were opposing the policy. 

No other definite plan presenting itself on the 

subject of internal improvements, Clay took up the 

advocacy of a bill to set apart the proceeds of the 

United States' connection with the national bank as 

Bolton. Vol. V, p. 108; Huiit, Calhoun, pp. 318-320. 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 87 

a fund for the construction of roads and canals, and 
the improvement of navigation on internal water- 
courses. This sum would include the bonus paid to 
the government by the bank as the price of its ex- 
istence, and the dividends on the shares held by the 
United States. The measure was justified on con- 
stitutional grounds because it would forward inter- 
state commerce, and facilitate the common defense. 
In his speech on February 4, 1817, Clay said he had 
" long thought" that there were " no two subjects 
which could engage the attention of the national 
legislature more worthy of its deliberate consider- 
ation, than those of internal improvements and do- 
mestic manufactures." He now had in mind the 
improvement of navigation at the rapids in the Ohio 
River, a canal from the Hudson River to the Great 
Lakes and a turnpike road to parallel the Atlantic 
coast from Maine to Florida. He was delighted to 
know of the early prospect of the completion of a 
good highway for wagons between Baltimore and 
the Ohio, and the consequent reduction of time con- 
sumed in the journey from eight to three days. 
Similar benefits would follow wherever this " spe- 
cies of improvement" should be effected. As to 
the constitutionality of the course, it need not be 
pressed at this time. The fund could be created, 
and when it had accumulated, if in the view of 
Congress its expenditure were adjudged the part of 
wisdom in the light of constitutional considerations, 
that policy might be pursued. The old Virginians, 
however, representing the strict constructionist view 
of the government inherited from the eighteenth 
century, wholly distrusted the advice of the younger 



88 HEXKY CLAY 

Republicans on this subject, and Madison vetoed 
the bill, the last act of his official career. 1 

Monroe made no concealment of his hostility to a 
similar measure, if it should be offered in Congress, 
and his first message contained a denial of any such 
constitutional right. To a man like Clay a state- 
ment of this kind was a challenge, and he had noth- 
ing to surrender on the point so long as he lived. 
Reelected to the speakership, he still was able in 
Committee of the Whole to develop his ideas fully 
and eloquently. On March 13, 1818, he spoke at 
much length upon a measure essentially the same as 
that which had been vetoed by President Madison. 
This was thought to be the best speech which Clay 
had made up to that time, and it marked him as an 
able expounder of constitutional questions, a field 
into which he had not yet very far proceeded. He 
now boldly took issue with Jefferson, Madison and 
Monroe, and those theories which they represented 
in the President's office for twenty-four years. He 
u utterly despaired'' of any amendment to the 
Constitution which these three Executives, one 
after another, had recommended to the advocates of 
internal improvements. As for himself, he believed 
the power already to rest with Congress. Its ex- 
istence he held " as of the first importance, not 
merely to the preservation of the Union of the States, 
paramount as that consideration ever should be over 
all others, but to the prosperity of every great in- 
terest of the country — agriculture, manufactures, 
commerce, in peace and in war." 

The power to make roads and canals was needed, 

l Hunt, Madison, p. 360. 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 89 

said Clay, " to distribute the intelligence, force and 
production of the country through all its parts." 
This was the declaration of a statesman of imagina- 
tion who had ideals for the nation above those to be 
obtained from any literal reading of the words and 
phrases of the Constitution. He plainly said that 
no maker of constitutions could " foresee and pro- 
vide specifically for all contingencies." " Man and 
his language," he continued, " are both imperfect. 
Hence the existence of construction and constructive 
powers. Hence, also, the rule that a grant of the 
end is a grant of the means. If you amend the 
Constitution a thousand times, the same imperfec- 
tion of our nature and our language will attend our 
new works." 

In discussing the theory of state rights, as it was 
held in Virginia, and as it had more lately revealed 
itself in Massachusetts, in reference to the War of 
1812, Mr. Clay said : "Kb man deprecates more 
than I do the idea of consolidation ; yet between 
separation and consolidation, painful as would be 
the alternative, I would greatly prefer the latter. 9 i 
Always exhibiting in his speeches a profitable read- 
ing of ancient history, he referred to the value of 
military roads to "those great masters of the world," 
the Romans, who thus sustained their power for so 
many centuries, " diffusing law and liberty and in- 
telligence all arouud them." He thought that if 
there were "no other monument remaining of the 
sagacity and of the illustrious deeds of the unfortu- 
nate captive of St. Helena, that the road from 
Hamburg to Basle would perpetuate his memory to 
future ages." Concluding, Mr. Clay said : "Of 



90 HENKY CLAY 

all the modes in which a government can employ 
its surplus revenue, none is more permanently 
beneficial than that of internal improvement. 
Fixed to the soil, it becomes a desirable part of the 
laud itself, diffusing comfort, and activity, and ani- 
mation on all sides. " This speech was an excellent 
evidence of Clay's oratory at this fruitful period in 
his leadership. It was "this enthusiastic concep- 
tion of national grandeur, this lofty unionism, con- 
stantly appearing as the inspiration of his public 
conduct," as Mr. Schurz says, which "gave to his 
policies, as they stood forth in the glow of his elo- 
quence, a peculiarly potent charm." 

While to some it may have seemed a daring 
thing for Mr. Clay to express himself in such a 
sense, in opposition to the teachings of men who 
had sat in the constitutional convention, and pro- 
jected its wisdom into the new century, he was not 
deterred by any such considerations. Mr. Schurz 
finds in the young Kentuckian's criticism of Monroe 
a discreditable personal motive. Mr. Clay was 
quite justified in stating a difference of opinion 
with the President, if he felt it to be of advantage 
to the discussion. Undoubtedly Mr. Monroe him- 
self was very much disturbed by Mr. Clay's hos- 
tility, since he had made every effort to conciliate 
the powerful Speaker of the House. The Presi- 
dent's porter was instructed to admit Mr. Clay at 
all times, even when the cabinet was in session, and 
ouce (prior to November 23, 1817) when he had de- 
clined the servant's invitation, Mr. Monroe came out 
in person, and brought him into the council. 1 Secre- 

1 Mrs. Smith, First For/// Years of Washington Society, p. 141. 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 91 

tary of State Adams also took umbrage at Mr. 
Clay's conduct, seeiug in it intrigue with reference 
to the presidency at the next election, supposed to 
be assured to him. 1 

In still another way did Clay appear to Monroe to 
be a gadfly upon his flank, and this was in connec- 
tion with the government's policy in South America. 
There, is little doubt that Clay's course in this mat- 
ter was bred of sincere, though somewhat youth- 
fully enthusiastic sympathy for the Spanish Ameri- 
can peoples. As he gave rein to his imagination he 
rose to heights of declamation which seem not to 
have been warranted by all the facts. It was, how- 
ever, a policy suggested by a liberal heart and, 
knowing his character, we cannot very well conceive 
of his being silent on this subject. Incidentally, 
it was an excellent opportunity for the display of 
his eloquence, and serves to entrench him in his 
position as one of the great orators of the age. He 
had said in the West Florida speech in the Senate in 
1810, ' ' I have no commiseration for princes j my 
sympathies are reserved for the great mass of man- 
kind ; " and now he burst out in a flood of impas- 
sioned eloquence, in behalf of the American subjects 
of Spain, struggling for their independence. 

The wars had been in progress for several years. 
They were waged tediously with many of those 
horrors, reports of which led to the awakening of 
our sympathies in regard to the Cubans eighty years 
later. The leaders of the insurgents were inspired 
by the example of the people of the United States in 
gaining their independence of the overlordship of 

1 Mejnoirs, Vol. IV, pp. 64, 66. 



92 HENRY CLAY 

Europe. The proposal which Clay now advocated 
was recognition by the American government of the 
so-called United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, to 
which he wished us to dispatch a minister. Com- 
missioners had been sent to South America to in- 
vestigate the condition of affairs, and the adminis- 
tration was not unmindful of the situation in that 
part of the globe and of the obligations of the United 
States toward neighboring peoples who were strain- 
ing every nerve to gain their liberties. The speech 
which Clay delivered on this subject on March 24, 
1818, to use his biographer Colton's words, "came 
down with tremendous effect" on the House of 
Representatives, on the country at large, on the 
Spanish Provinces, on Spain herself, and on all 
Europe. " It was republican America from Cape 
Horn to Hudson's Bay against monarchical Europe 
from the Mediterranean to Finland, that suddenly 
started up before the surprised imaginations of 
men." ' 

Clay had had war in view when he had formulated 
his policies upon his return from the mission to 
Ghent. He would not foment or urge it, but he 
wished the nation so to strengthen itself that it 
could at all times upon all subjects pursue a course 
of righteousness, undeterred by considerations af- 
fecting the conduct of other powers as a result of this 
course. He now stated his aversion to war with 
Spain, although she had given "abundant and just 
cause." He had seen enough of it and nothing 
could make him think that it was else than a 
"dreadful scourge." Nevertheless, he had views 

1 Vol. V, p. 137. 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 93 

which ho was bound to express, and the govern- 
ment had duties which it was obliged to perform. 
" In the establishment of the independence of 
Spanish x^.nierica," he said, "the United States 
have the deepest interest. I have no hesitation in 
asserting iny firm belief that there is no question in 
the foreign policy of this country which has ever 
arisen, or which I can conceive as ever occurring in 
the decision of which we have had, or can have so 
much at stake. This interest concerns our politics, 
our commerce, our navigation. There cannot be a 
doubt that Spanish America once independent, 
whatever may be the form of the governments es- 
tablished in the several parts, these governments 
will be animated by an American feeling and 
guided by an American policy." 

He adverted to the charge that the people were 
too ignorant and too superstitious to admit of the 
existence of free government. " I deny the alleged 
fact of ignorance," said he. "I deny the inference 
from that fact, if it were true, that they want 
capacity for free government ; and I refuse assent to 
the further conclusion, if the fact were true, that we 
are to be indifferent to their fate." He scorned the 
view of those who said that in the independence of 
Spanish America we should meet a great rival in 
agricultural productions. "There is something so 
narrow, and selfish, and groveling in this argument 
if founded in fact, ' ' said he, ' ' something so unworthy 
the magnanimity of a great and generous people that 
I confess I have scarcely patience to notice it." 

"We are," the orator continued, "the natural 
head of the American family. I would not inter- 



94 HENRY CLAY 

meddle in the affairs of Europe. We wisely keep 
aloof from their broils. I would not even inter- 
meddle in those of other parts of America, further 
than to exert the incontestable rights appertaining 
to us as a free, sovereign and independent power ; 
and I contend that the accrediting of a minister 
from the new republic is such a right. We are 
bound to receive their minister, if we mean to be 
really neutral. If the royal belligerent is repre- 
sented and heard at our government, the republican 
belligerent ought also to be heard." 

Four days later, on March 28th, Mr. Clay again 
entered the discussion with a speech which was in- 
deed but in continuation of the first one. He dwelt 
upon our own Revolutionary history and sought to 
bring South America's condition home to the sym- 
pathies of his hearers. He spoke of his old tutor, 
Chancellor Wythe, and appealed to the patriots of 
' 76 before him. Many portions of the speech were 
steeped in irony, of which few men were in fuller 
command. He had heard of a proposal to send a 
minister to Constantinople. It was an opportunity 
for him to say : i { Yes, sir, from Constantinople or 
from the Brazils j from Turk or Christian ; from 
black or white ; from the Bey of Algiers or the Bey 
of Tunis ; from the devil himself, if he wore a crown, 
we should receive a minister. We even paid the 
expenses of the minister of his sublime highness, 
the Bey of Tunis, and thought ourselves highly hon- 
ored by the visit. But let the minister come from 
a poor republic, like that of La Plata, and we turn 
our back on him. The brilliaut costumes of the 
ministers of the royal governments are seen glisten- 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 95 

ing in the circles of our drawing-rooms and their 
splendid equipages rolling through the avenues of 
the metropolis ; but the unaccredited minister of the 
republic if he visit our President, or Secretary of 
State at all, must do it iDcognito, lest the eye of 
Don Onis [the Spanish minister] should be offended 
by so unseemly a sight.' ' 

Ministers had been exchanged with the Brazils. 
' ' The one, however, is a kingdom, the other a re- 
public ; and if any gentleman can assign any other 
better reason why a minister should be sent to one 
and not to the other of these powers, I shall be glad 
to hear it disclosed, for I have not been able myself 
to discover it." "All the patriots ask," said he, 
" all they want at our hands, is to be recognized as, 
what they have been for the last eight years, an in- 
dependent power." 

Mr. Clay's amendment was lost in the House by 
a vote of 115 to 45, but he did not abandon the 
cause of the South Americans, who were translating 
his speeches into Spanish, reading them to their 
armies, incorporating his name in their patriotic 
songs, voting him their thanks and in other ways 
sending him evidences of their gratitude for the aid 
which he sought to give them in their extremity. 1 
He was now confirmed in his title as the "Great 
Commoner," a name which clung to him through 

1 In 1827 General Bolivar wrote to Henry Clay, thanking him 
for his brilliant services in behalf of the Sonth Americans, and 
about a year later Clay replied to the letter. Meantime he had 
had reason to doubt the motives of Bolivar which had once 
seemed so pure. He spoke of the " ambitious designs " of the 
Colombian leader which had caused him "great solicitude" 
and suggested to him that he prefer " the true glory of our im- 
mortal Washington." Mallory, Vol. I, pp. 99-100. 



96 HEXKY CLAY 

life, the friend of poor, struggling humanity at 
home and abroad. 

In the next Congress he again brought up the 
question of recognizing the South Americans. By 
this time the frame of the public mind had im- 
proved. Mr. Monroe and Mr. Adams seemed to be 
more favorable to action, and in 1820 Mr. Clay's 
resolution passed the House by a vote of eighty to 
seventy-five. The administration was still un- 
moved, however, and in February, 1821, Clay 
brought forward a resolution embodying a similar 
view which was again approved by the House. He 
was the chairman of a committee to visit the Presi- 
dent, and officially make known the action of the 
House ; l but it was not until March 8, 1822 (more 
than eighteen months prior to the announcement of 
the Doctrine, afterward become so famous) that 
Monroe, believing the proper hour had arrived, sent 
a message to Congress, recommending the recogni- 
tion by the United States of the Spanish American 
Eepublics. It met with prompt response. Clay's 
motives on any subject seldom escaped unhappy 
questioning, but here at least he ought to be credited 
with sincerity. They came " straight from his 
generous impulses." 2 

Clay's sympathies for all ranks of mankind were 
predominant again when he reviewed in so notable 
a way the extraordinary and lawless behavior of 
General Jackson in the Floridas, with reference to 
the Seminole Indians. He perhaps may not have 

1 For Adams's views at this time see Memoirs. Vol. V, pp. 
324-325. 

2 Schurz, p. 168. 



CONSTKUCTIVE POLICIES 97 

before fathomed the " military hero's" power in a 
democracy j he may not have realized how, do what 
he might constitutionally or unconstitutionally, a 
successful warrior can occupy and dominate the 
popular fancy. Again, if there was thought that 
the American people could choose such a leader in 
preference to men of so much more poise, refine- 
ment and true ability in the management of civil 
affairs, he may not have reckoned with Jackson's 
singularly unforgiving heart. If he had been in- 
formed beforehand of all these things, however, it 
is fair to think that Mr. Clay's course would have 
been unchanged. Not one word did he speak un- 
feelingly and while assailing Jackson at some points, 
with all the vigor that can be put into speech, it 
was done with so much oratorical grace as com- 
pared with criticisms passed in Congress by one 
public man upon another, at a later day, that it 
should not have led to that outburst of malignity on 
the part of Jackson and his friends which pursued 
Clay until his death. 

Jackson had raised troops in Tennessee without 
authority ; he entered Florida, then still belonging 
to Spain, to pursue Indians who from that vantage- 
point raided settlements under jurisdiction of the 
United States. In the spring of 1818 he captured 
the Spanish fort of St. Mark's, hanged Indian chiefs, 
lured into his net by methods outside the pale of 
civilized warfare ; court-martialed two British sub- 
jects, Arbuthnot and Ambrister, who were found 
with the Indians and were accused of instigating 
them to outrage, and shot them to death ; seized 
Pensacola, deposed the governor and left an Ameri- 



98 HENKY CLAY 

can garrison at the old Spanish post. Such high- 
handed proceedings created great amazement, ex- 
cept among the lower orders of men, always 
"for their country, right or wrong," especially 
when the policy involved the famous hero of New 
Orleans. The administration was obliged to dis- 
avow a part at least of Jackson's performances, and 
resolutions appeared in Congress condemning his 
course. A prolonged debate ensued and on Jan- 
uary 20, 1819, it was kuown that Clay would speak. 
He was now the most admired orator on Capitol 
Hill. Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, who heard this 
speech, tells of the great effect which it produced : 

1 1 When I reached the Hall, it was so crowded that 
it was impossible to join my party. . . . The 
Senate had adjourned to hear Mr. Clay. All the for- 
eign ministers and suites [and] many strangers were 
admitted to the floor [who] in addition to the mem- 
bers rendered the house crowded. The gallery was 
full of ladies, gentlemen and men, to a degree that 
endangered it. Even the outer entries were thronged 
and yet such silence prevailed that, though at a con- 
siderable distance, I did not lose a word. Mr. Clay 
was not only eloquent but amusing and more than 
once made the whole house laugh. ... To hear 
the better I had seated myself on some steps quite 
out of sight of the house ; when Mr. Clay had fin- 
ished, he came into the lobby for air and refresh- 
ment. The members crowded round him and I 
imagine by his countenance what they whispered 
must have been very agreeable. When he saw me 
he came and sat a few minutes on the steps by me, 
throwing himself most gracefully into a recumbent 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 99 

posture. I told him I had come prepared to sit till 
evening and was disappointed at his speech being 
so short. He said he had intended to have spoken 
longer, but his voice had given out ; he had begun 
too loud and soon exhausted himself. . . . The 
gentlemen are grown very gallant and attentive and 
as it was impossible to reach the ladies through the 
gallery, a new mode was invented of supplying them 
with oranges, etc. They tied them up in handker- 
chiefs, to which was fixed a note indicating for whom 
it was designed, and then fastened to a long pole. 
This was taken on the floor of the House and handed 
up to the ladies who sat in front of the gallery. 
I imagine there were near one hundred ladies there 
so that these presentations were frequent and quite 
amusing, even in the midst of Mr. Clay's speech. I 
and the ladies near me were more accessible and 
were more than supplied with oranges, cakes, etc." 
In this notable address Mr. Clay took the gravest 
exception to Jackson's treatment of the Indians. 
He found the causes of the Avar in the general's 
Treaty of 1814, which he read and which he declared 
to be " utterly irreconcilable with those noble prin- 
ciples of generosity and magnanimity which I hope 
to see my country always exhibit, and particularly 
toward the miserable remnant of the aborigines." 
Its terms were u hard and unconscionable," and 
could not but soon lead to ' ' greater exasperation and 
more ferocity " on the side of the " conquered party." 
There was no right " to practice under color of re- 
taliation enormities on the Indians." " This was 
the first instance," he declared, "in the annals of 
the country." Even when we were weak and they 



100 HENEY CLAY 

were comparatively strong we did not " destroy 
Indian captives, combatants or non-combatants*' 
and bring to bear upon them ' ' the bloody maxims 
of barbarous ages." As for the execution of Ar- 
buthnot and Anibrister, a gentleman in the House 
had said that it was only the wrong mode of doing 
a right thing. ' i In what code of public law, ' ' said 
Clay, " in what system of ethics, nay, in what re- 
spectable novel, where if the gentleman were to take 
the range of the whole literature of the world will 
he find any sanction for a principle so monstrous ? ' ' 
Such procedure clearly pointed, he believed, to the 
end of free government. i ' Eecall to your recollec- 
tion the free nations which have gone before us. 
Where are they now f 

" 'Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were, 
A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour ! ' 

And how have they lost their liberties ! " 

He eloquently pointed to the examples of Greece 
and Eome, and the disasters which befell them at 
the hands of military chieftains. He spoke of Bona- 
parte and then said : "I hope not to be misunder- 
stood ; I am far from intimating that General Jack- 
son cherishes any designs inimical to the liberties of 
the country. I believe his intentions to be pure and 
patriotic. I thank God that he would not, but I 
thank Him still more that he could not, if he 
would, overturn the liberties of the republic. . . . 
We are fighting a great moral battle for the benefit 
not only of our country but of all mankind. . . . 
Do you expect to execute this high trust by tramp- 
ling, or [suffering to be trampled down law, justice, 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 101 

the Constitution and the rights of the people? by 
exhibiting examples of inhumanity, and cruelty, 
and ambition ¥ When the minions of despotism 
heard in Europe of the seizure of Pensacola, how 
did they chuckle and chide the admirers of our in- 
stitutions ? . . . Behold, said they, the conduct 
of those who are constantly reproaching kings. 
. . . Beware how you give a fatal sanction in 
this infant period of our republic, scarcely yet two 
score years old, to military insubordination. Ke- 
member that Greece had her Alexander, Eome her 
Caesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte 
and that if we would escape the rock on which they 
split we must avoid their errors." 1 

It was a brilliant piece of oratory but the House, 
by majorities ranging from thirty to forty-six, voted 
down the various resolutions expressive of its disap- 
probation of Jackson' s course. He was still the hero 
that he had been, and indeed seemed to gain by 
this attempt, as many esteemed it, to put him in a 
bad light before the nation which he had leaped for- 
ward to serve. 

A clear riddance of these border troubles with the 
Indians, and of the confusion of sovereignty arising 
from the efforts to control them, could be secured 
only by the acquisition of Florida, which was soon 
arranged for and brought before Congress for its 
sanction. Mr. Adams's efforts were declared to 
have been successful only a few weeks after Clay 
had delivered his ringing speech. The treaty ex- 
cluded Texas from the ceded area. It was approved 
by the Senate but the King of Spain was slow to 

1 Influenced undoubtedly by memories of Patrick Henry. 



102 HENRY CLAY 

give it bis ratification, whereupon many were in 
favor of taking forcible possession of Florida. Mon- 
roe sent a message to Congress on the subject on 
March 27, 1820, and Clay entered the discussion 
with a speech which increased his renown at the 
time, and gave him the title to a gift of prophecy in 
later years. He asserted that Texas already be- 
longed to the United States as a part of the Louisiana 
Purchase, and accused the administration of having 
made a very bad bargain with Spain when it had 
agreed to surreuder the claim to this great territory 
in return for Florida. 

And this was not all. Though he would not give 
Texas for Florida "in a naked exchange," we were 
bound by the treaty to pay $5,000,000, claims upon 
Spain, amounting probably to three or four times 
that sum, and to make other considerations. Texas 
he declared to be " extremely valuable." "The 
climate was delicious, the soil fertile ; the margins 
of the rivers abounding in live oak and the country 
admitting of easy settlement." Here was a great 
colony for us ready at hand contiguous in area. 
' ' The same Mississippi from whose rich deposit the 
best of them [Louisiana] had been formed," he said, 
' ' will transport on her bosom the brave, the 
patriotic men from her tributary streams to defend 
and preserve the next most valuable, the province 
of Texas." He had no wish to minimize the worth 
of Florida, though it was "incomparably less " than 
that of Texas. Moreover, enclosed by Alabama and 
Georgia, Florida could not escape, and five or ten 
years more or less would matter little to the United 
States. In this, too, did Clay fail, though he and 



CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 103 

his admirers, when Texas must be repurchased for 
a large sum of money and by a war, could point 
with some interest to the policy which he had un- 
availingly advocated twenty-five years before. At 
length Spain ratified the treaty and it was pro- 
claimed by President Monroe on Washington's 
Birthday, 1821. 

Mr. Clay again spoke as the friend of struggling 
humanity on January 20, 1824, when a resolution 
came before the House of Eepresentatives extending 
sympathy to the Greeks in their revolution against 
Turkey. The war was marked by great atrocities, 
and Daniel Webster, who sat in the House as a 
Federalist from Massachusetts, introduced a measure 
providing for the recognition of Greek independence 
by the appointment of a commissioner. Here again 
Clay followed the bent of his impulses, so charitably 
awakened, in reference to the South American 
states. In this speech the orator uttered some of his 
most impassioned measures. u Are we so humbled, 
so low, so debased," he asked, "that we dare not 
express our sympathy for suffering Greece ; that we 
dare not articulate our detestation of the brutal 
excesses of which she has been the bleeding victim 
lest we might offend some one or more of their im- 
perial and royal majesties? . . . Are we so 
mean, so base, so despicable that we may not at- 
tempt to express our horror, utter our indignation 
at the most brutal and atrocious war that ever 
stained earth, or shocked high heaven ? At the 
ferocious deeds of a savage and infuriated soldiery, 
stimulated and urged on by the clergy of a fanatical 
and inimical religion and rioting in all the excesses 



104 HENRY CLAY 

of blood and butchery, at the mere details of which 
the heart sickens and recoils? " 

As for such action on the part of the United States 
tending " to whet the vengeance of the Turk against 
his Grecian victims, ' ' he did not believe it. ' ' When 
he is made to understand," said Mr. Clay in a burst 
of eloquence, "that the Executive of this govern- 
ment is sustained by the representatives of the 
people j that our entire political future, base, column 
and entablature, rulers and people, with heart, soul, 
mind and strength are all on the side of the gallant 
people whom he would crush, he will be more likely 
to restrain than to increase his atrocities upon suffer- 
ing and bleeding Greece." 

Some he surmised might oppose the resolution 
because it had been offered by a Federalist. " If 
it were possible for Eepublicans to cease to be 
champions of human freedom," said he, " and if 
Federalists become its only supporters, I would 
cease to be a Republican ; I would become a Feder- 
alist." 

Though this resolution was never acted upon, the 
speech stamped Clay as the consistent advocate of 
suffering manhood in all parts of the earth, and 
whatever effect it may have had upon some minds, 
still more strongly entrenched him in the affections 
of his friends. 



CHAPTER V 

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 

The first of that series of compromises of the issue 
between North and South on the slavery question, 
in the management of which Mr. Clay played so 
prominent a part, had to do with the admission of 
Missouri into the Union. Should it be a slave 
or a free state ? Here Clay made a beginning as a 
public man in that class of activity which soon 
caused him to be called "the Great Pacificator. " 
His power over the people in all portions of the 
country was enormous, and this, joined to his love 
of the Union and his parliamentary finesse, made 
him a leading influence in the work of temporarily 
composing the differences of the two sections. The 
service seems infinitely less important since the 
Civil "War than it did before that event. Those 
who labored to avert the war have had to make way 
in our esteem for those who successfully directed 
and prosecuted it. It is Clay's fate, though he 
struggled manfully against disunion for thirty years, 
to be relegated to a far less important place in our 
history, as it is taught and understood by the aver- 
age American, than is assigned to those who have 
gained our affections because it was their fortune 
to have a hand in the physical subjugation of 
slavery, and whose fighting was done upon the field 
of battle. 



106 HENKY CLAY 

Mr. Clay's dislike of slavery could not have been 
else than real and great. His generous heart, full 
of sympathy for all the downtrodden and op- 
pressed — South Americans, Indians and Greeks — 
made no exception of the blacks held as bond- 
servants in the South. We have seen that emanci- 
pation was one of the first subjects to engage his 
attention as a young man when he arrived in 
Kentucky from Virginia, and he said on January 
20, 1827, at the annual meeting of the American 
Colonization Society in Washington : " If I could 
be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain 
[slavery] from the character of our country, and re- 
moving all cause of reproach on account of it by 
foreign nations ; if I could only be instrumental in 
ridding of this foul blot that revered state that gave 
me birth, or that no less beloved state which kindly 
adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the 
proud satisfaction which I should enjoy for the 
honor of all the triumphs ever decreed to the most 
successful conqueror." 

He had started with Washington, Jefferson, 
Madison, Patrick Henry and the other Virginians, 
all of whom at this early day did not attempt to 
conceal the evils of slavery. He passed over to the 
advocacy of the colonization movement, which 
also claimed the sympathy of Lincoln, and was in- 
deed at first a favorite plan of Benjamin Lundy and 
the Northern Abolitionists themselves. What his 
attitude became as the dispute waxed hotter and 
more furious we shall later see. It is enough at 
this point to know that though he himself had a 
number of slaves at work upon his estate near 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 107 

Lexington, he sincerely abominated the system of 
bondage and wished the country in all its parts well 
rid of the evil. In his speech in behalf of sending 
a minister to South America on May 10, 1820, Clay 
said in the House : • ' Will gentlemen contend, be- 
cause these people are not like us in all particulars, 
they are, therefore, unfit for freedom?" In some 
particulars he ventured to say that the people of 
South America were in advance of us. On the 
point which had been so much discussed on the 
floor during the present session they were greatly 
in advance of us: "Granada, Venezuela and 
Buenos Ayres had all emancipated their slaves." 
The reference here to the discussions of the 
" present session" is to the Missouri question, into 
the settlement of which he was injected in a promi- 
nent way. That Mr. Clay was not the emancipa- 
tionist in this contest is very plain, though his 
speeches are either not at all or else very incom- 
pletely reported. Mr. Schurz hints that there 
was design in this, 1 but the suggestion seems not 
quite credible. In any event, much concerning 
Clay's attitude at this time is left to inference, and 
this inference clearly is that he played the part of 
the Southern man. His convictions as to the wrongs 
of slavery, however sincere, did not obtrude in these 
debates, and it was certainly because of his South- 
ern affiliations and, as it was believed and stated, 
his Southern sympathies, that he was enabled to 
exert his important influence in pacifying the hos- 
tile elements, and in putting off the day of reckon- 
ing on this great sectional issue. It was the South 

1 Schurz, Vol. I, p. 182. 



108 HENRY CLAY 

which always needed to be appeased on this ques- 
tion, though it is probably true that the South at 
this time was more deeply attached to the Union 
than the North. 1 It is assumed, therefore, that it 
was willing to give up more for the sake of the 
Union than at a later day. 

However all this may be, it is plain that a very 
unhappy crisis in the affairs of the two sections was 
successfully passed in 1820-21, through the exer- 
tions of Henry Clay. That his course does not 
mark him as an Abolitionist is less important in 
establishing his reputation as a public man, at the 
time in which he lived, than would have been his 
unalterable antagonism to slavery. At any rate, 
he chose to pacify rather than to disrupt, which 
would have been the result, since war between the 
sections could not have come at this time. The 
sections would have separated in all probability 
peacefully. It is the purpose of a very large volume 
which has rather recently appeared 2 to show that 
Henry Clay did not originate the Missouri Com- 
promise, as is not infrequently assumed, and ergo 
that it was not a Southern measure. It was, ac- 
cording to this contention, forced upon the Southern 
people. They were compelled to give open or tacit 
assent to the principle that the admission of a state 
might be made contingent upon the denial of the 
right of a citizen to hold and use slaves, and that 
the national government might restrict slavery in 
the territories. If this can be shown, then, it is 

1 Mrs. Archibald Dixon, The Missouri Compromise and its Re- 
peal, p. 86. 
3 Ibid. 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 109 

argued that less opprobrium will attach to the 
actiou of those who took part iu the repeal of the 
Coniprouiise iu 1854. 

It is quite true that Mr. Clay did uot originate the 
measure, which became a battle-cry for North and 
South during the ensuing forty years. For some 
time slaveholders had been emigrating with their 
slaves across the Mississippi River into the country 
there acquired by the United States through the 
Louisiana Purchase. In 1818 Missouri had pro- 
gressed so far in wealth and population that she 
applied for admission as a state. A bill authori- 
zing her to form a constitution for her government 
appeared in the House on February 13, 1819, and 
James Tallmadge, a Republican from New York, 
moved as an amendment that the further enslaving 
of negroes should be prohibited in the new state, 
and that negro children born into slavery should be 
emancipated upon arriving at the age of twenty-five 
years. This was the signal for the great contest 
over the constitutional rights of the slaveholder, 
and the economic and moral aspects of his institu- 
tion. Defiant speeches were indulged in, though 
these seem to have meant much less than at a later 
day, and secession was spoken of nearly everywhere 
as though it were an every- day right. The dissolu- 
tion of the Union was very near at hand, if all that 
was said augured anything. On February 16, 1819, 
three days after its introduction, the House passed 
the Missouri bill with the restriction on the subject 
of slavery, which, however, was promptly stricken 
out by the Senate. The measure came back to the 
House but it failed in the Fifteenth Congress. 



110 HENRY CLAY 

The fruit of the session was a bill organizing one 
portion of the Mississippi country obtained by the 
Louisiana Purchase into the territory of Arkansas, 
Clay speaking against the prohibition of slavery 
there in emphatic terms. 1 

When Congress met in December, 1819, three 
territories applied for admission to the Union as 
states, Alabama, Maine and Missouri. The plea of 
the first of these was granted at once. It was slave 
ground beyond peradventure and no one thought of 
keeping it out of the Union on this account. It 
was a balance for Illinois. Missouri, on the other 
hand, was doubtful, and it was the Southern hope 
to play it off against Maine, according to the 
system tacitly agreed to of adding a slave state and a 
free state to the Union at the same time, in the 
great work of maintaining the sectional equilibrium. 

Many petitions were received, praying for Mis- 
souri's admission, both with and without slavery. 
John W. Taylor of New York, afterward Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, was the leader of 
the free- state men in that branch of Congress. 
Up to this time no such excitement in regard to 
slavery had been known in this country. On De- 
cember 30th, Speaker Clay said, on the subject of 
the admission of Maine, that he was not prepared 
for the question. He was not opposed to this terri- 
tory's coming into the union, " but before it was 
finally acted on he wished to know whether certain 
doctrines of an alarming character, — which if per- 
severed in, no man could tell where they would end 
— with respect to a restriction on the admission of 

1 Annals of Congress, Vol. II, p. 1223 et seq. 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 111 

states west of the Mississippi were to be sustained 
ou this floor." And he continued: "If beyond 
the mountains Congress can exert the power of im- 
posing restrictions on new states, can they not also 
on this side of them ! ... If the states of the 
West are to be subject to restrictions by Congress, 
whilst the Atlantic states are free from them, pro- 
claim the distinction at once ; announce your priv- 
ileges and immunities. Let us have a clear and 
distinct understanding of what we are to expect." l 

Mr. Clay made himself the outspoken advocate of 
the unconditional treatment of Missouri. 2 " Equal- 
ity," he said, "is equity. If we have no right to 
impose conditions on this state [Maine] we have none 
to impose them on the state of Missouri. . . . 
The doctrine is an alarming one, and I protest 
against it now, and whenever and wherever it may 
be asserted . . . that any line of distinction is to 
be drawn between the Eastern and Western states." 
He asserted that to impose restrictions upon Mis- 
souri on the subject of slavery was to strip it "of an 
essential attribute of sovereignty. " 3 

In January, Mr. Taylor moved an amendment to 
the Missouri bill prohibiting slavery, 4 and the com- 
bat raged day by day for several weeks, newspaper 
wags of the time denominating it the "Misery 
[Missouri] Debate." On February 8, 1820, the 
question had gotten into so confused and angry a 
position that Mr. Clay rose in Committee of the 
Whole and for nearly four hours addressed the 
House against the right and expediency of the pro- 

1 Annals of Congress for that year, Vol. I, pp. 831-832. 
'Ibid., pp. 834-835. ■ Ibid., p. 842. 4 Ibid., p. 947. 



112 HENRY CLAY 

posed restriction upon Missouri, of which no more 
is said in the official reports of the proceedings. 1 
Of this doubtless very notable speech there is no 
record except in the responses of those who disagreed 
with Mr. Clay. The remarks of a speaker, as they 
are paraphrased by an opponent in a parliamentary 
debate, are an unfair basis for judgment, but it is 
certain that he did not in this discussion dwell upon 
the evils of slavery and make a record for himself 
as an emancipator of the black man. 

Meanwhile the respective claims of Missouri and 
Maine to statehood were being discussed in a similar 
way in the Senate. As the debates proceeded it be- 
came clear that the House with its Northern ma- 
jorities would not agree to the extension of slavery 
west of the Mississippi ; while the Senate, where the 
balance of the sections continued so much longer, 
and where the South found the guaranty of what it 
was pleased to regard as its equal liberties in the 
Union, would not agree to admit Missouri under 
any restriction upon the rights of the slaveholder, 
meanwhile excluding Maine altogether. It was at 
length proposed by Senator Thomas of the new 
state of Illinois, which had come into the Union 
in 1818, that both Maine and Missouri should be 
admitted : the one, of course, without slavery ; the 
other with it, under the proviso that in the terri- 
tory ceded by France to the United States under 
the name of Louisiana, slavery should not exist 
anywhere, except in Missouri, north of the line 
36' 30" north latitude; i.e., the southern bound- 
ary of Missouri. This measure passed the Senate 

1 Annals, Vol. I, p. 1170. 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 113 

by a vote of thirty-four to ten on February 17th. 1 
The majority included fourteen Southern votes. 

When the Senate's solution of the difficulty reached 
the House, it was not favorably received by either 
Southern or Northern members. Clay himself ad- 
vised that the prohibition of slavery be made a 
" recommendation for Missouri's free acceptance or 
rejection." 2 He learned of a movement for the 
withdrawal from Congress of the Southern members 
iii a body. One evening John Randolph approached 
him, saying: "Mr. Speaker, I wish you would 
leave the chair. I will follow you to Kentucky or 
anywhere else in the world." "That is a very 
serious proposition which we have not now time to 
discuss," Clay answered. "But if you will come 
into the Speaker's room to-morrow morning before 
the House assembles, we will discuss it together." 
Clay himself expressed a fear that the Union, if not 
at once, in a few years would be split into three 
confederacies, an eastern, a southern and a western. 8 

The congressional reports indicate that the 
Speaker was one of the most active in the debate, 
yet his remarks are never recorded. At length, on 
March 2d, after many votes had been taken, and a 
conference of representatives of the two chambers 
had been held, the House agreed to the provision in 
regard to the line 36' 30" north latitude by a vote 
of ninety to eighty-seven. This result was attained 
only by some manipulation, in which we can well 
believe that Clay had an important part. Eighteen 

1 Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 428. 
'Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1556. 
8 Schurz, Vol. I, p. 197. 



114 HENRY CLAY 

of these niuety votes came from Northern states 
whose legislatures or citizens had solemnly protested 
against the admission of Missouri with slavery, and 
John Randolph immediately gave them the immor- 
tal name of " dough -faces." On March 2d, on the 
main question of concurrence, the vote was 134 to 
42. The Maine bill was now slipped through, 
to be signed by the President at once. The next 
day, March 3d, Randolph moved a reconsideration 
of the Missouri question. Speaker Clay declared 
the motion out of order, and he was sustained in 
this opinion when the maker of the motion appealed 
to the House. The plea was that the regular morn- 
ing business must be disposed of. When Randolph 
found his opportunity, he renewed his activity only 
to find that while the petitions were being presented, 
the Speaker had signed the bill and had sent it off 
to the Senate by the clerk. As it was no longer in 
the possession of the House, a bill to reconsider it 
could not be entertained, a course of action whereby 
Randolph was greatly enraged. John Quincy 
Adams, angry like Randolph, though iu an oppo- 
site interest, called it " trickery and an outrage 
upon the rules of the House." ' Thus the struggle 
over Missouri, for the time being at least, was at an 
end, though neither side enjoyed the terms which 
had been obtained, and a difference which promised 
to develop into a great national crisis was — happily 
or unhappily as our view may be — bequeathed to 
the future. 

The Compromise was no sooner announced than 
there was a close scanning of the records of the con- 

1 Memoirs, Vol. V, p. 4. 






THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 115 

gressmen. How had they voted on this great ques- 
tion ! Many went home to very angry constituencies 
and the excitement during the summer of 1820 was in- 
tense. The Missourians, as if to defy the fates which 
had so narrowly favored them, now proceeded to 
adopt a course indicating incredibly little tact. 
They proceeded to insert in their new constitution 
provisions prohibiting their legislature from ever, 
at any time, putting a restraint upon slaveholders, 
and barring from the state free negroes who might 
desire to enter it to make it their home. Black 
men were to be slaves eternally in Missouri, a most 
unpleasant subject of reflection for those Northern 
people who abominated the Compromise even in its 
best form. Clay having suffered heavy financial 
misfortune, through his endorsements for a friend, 
felt himself compelled to withdraw for a time from 
public life, to devote himself to better paid pursuits 
in Lexington. He had been Speaker of the House 
ever since he had entered it in 1811, except for the 
absence abroad while negotiating the Treaty of 
Ghent. He announced now, when the Sixteenth 
Congress convened for its second session, that he 
could not be present until after the new year had 
begun and he begged therefore that his colleagues 
would elect another presiding officer. The choice 
fell upon Mr. Taylor, the anti-slavery leader of New 
York, and the struggle over Missouri, which had 
broken out afresh as soon as Congress met, was at 
its height when Clay found it convenient to return 
to Washington. Indeed, the news of the situation 
crossing the mountains hastened his coming, and 
there was need at once for all the pacificatory in- 



116 HENRY CLAY 

fluences of which his position and nature gave him 
command. 

The Missouri bill was entitled, " An act to au- 
thorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form 
a constitution and state government, and for the 
admission of such state into the Union on an equal 
footing with the original states, and to prohibit 
slavery in certain territories." It was a mere "en- 
abling act " which called for further proceedings 
on the part of Congress. It was now the business 
of that body to scrutinize the frame of government 
adopted by the new state before finally approving 
of its admission to the Union, and this work the 
members undertook with much advice from their 
constituents. 

The argument covered a wide field. It was urged 
in defense of the provision which barred free negroes 
from residence in Missouri that other states main- 
tained restrictions against them. In Vermont and 
New Hampshire they might not bear arms. In 
Rhode Island if a negro were caught out-of-doors at 
night after nine o'clock he was to be publicly 
whipped by a constable. "No negro except a 
subject of the Emperor of Morocco or a citizen of 
the United States" could remain in Massachusetts 
longer than two months. Being then told to go he 
was in ten days entitled to a public whipping. 
Even white persons who were strangers in a neigh- 
borhood could be fined, imprisoned and whipped in 
New York and some other Northern states, if lin- 
gering within its borders, they promised to become 
public charges. 

In the Senate, Mr. Eaton of Tennessee offered an 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 117 

amendment to the resolution, declaring Missouri a 
state of the Union " on an equal footing with the 
original states," in terms as follows: " Provided 
that nothing herein contained shall be so construed 
as to give the assent of Congress to any provision in 
the Constitution of Missouri, if any such there be, 
which contravenes that clause in the Constitution of 
the United States which declares that ' the citizens 
of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges 
and immunities of the citizens in the several 
states.'" 1 

The resolution with the Eaton proviso finally 
passed the Senate on December 12, 1820, by a vote 
of twenty-six to eighteen, and was sent to the House 
for its concurrence. There the discussion did not 
await the action of the Senate ; it was already far 
advanced in acrimony. On December 13th a House 
measure to admit Missouri was rejected by a major- 
ity of fourteen, amid intense excitement. The vote 
was ninety-three to seventy-nine. " The Missouri 
question is the most portentous that ever threatened 
the Union," said the aged Thomas Jefferson at 
" Monticello." " In the gloomiest moments of the 
Revolutionary War I never had any apprehension 
equal to that I feel from this source." 

On January 16, 1821, the journal of the proceed- 
ings of the House announces : " Another member, 
to wit from Kentucky, Henry Clay, appeared and 
took his seat." 2 His coming had been awaited with 
more anxiety than these few words would indicate. 
In and out of Congress it was believed that he would 
find some method of applying balm to the gaping 

1 Annals of Congress, p. 41. 2 Ibid., p. 872. 



118 HENRY CLAY 

wound. Hopelessness was written on the faces of 
Southern and Northern men. The House continued 
its wrangling over the question always with the 
same general outcome. One statistician computes 
that it had now voted just seventeen times against 
the admission of Missouri. 1 On the 24th of Jan- 
uary, a resolution of Mr. Eustis of Massachusetts 
having been rejected, " after a pause, Mr. Clay 
rose and gave notice that if no other gentleman 
made a motion on the subject, he should, on the day 
after to-morrow, move to go into Committee of the 
Whole on the state of the Union, to take into con- 
sideration the resolution from the Senate on the sub- 
ject of Missouri." a This was the beginning of a 
movement which under Clay's skilful management 
brought the unhappy impasse to an end. He was 
not ready with the motion until the 29th, where- 
upon the Eaton resolution to admit Missouri with 
the caveat against the provision in its constitution, 
if there were any, which conflicted with the Con- 
stitution of the United States, was taken up. Clay 
himself, Randolph and others spoke on the ques- 
tion. Many and various amendments were pro- 
posed during the next few days. Absolutely no 
basis of agreement was discoverable, although 
Clay used his conciliatory influences in favor of 
most of the proposals, and exhibited a temper indi- 
cating that he himself would be willing to accept 
almost any plan which promised to bring about a 
harmonious understanding. 

On February 2d, seeing no other open course 

1 Mrs. Dixon, Missouri Compromise, p. 103. 
3 Annals of Congress, p. 944. 



THE MISSOUBI COMPKOMISE 119 

and ' ' anxious to make a last effort to settle the dis- 
traeting question," l he moved to refer the resolu- 
tion of the Senate to a committee of thirteen mem- 
bers, one for each of the original states, of which he 
was made the chairman. It included such leaders 
as Eustis of Massachusetts, John Sergeant of Peuu- 
sylvania, Lowndes of South Carolina, Cobb of 
Georgia and Campbell of Ohio. Five members 
came from Southern, and eight from Northern 
states. On February 10th the committee reported 
great diversity of opinion in its own membership, 
but in order to attain, if possible, an amicable ad- 
justment of the difficulty, it proposed an amend- 
ment to the resolution of the Senate. This was of 
considerable length and instead of the Eaton proviso, 
contained a stipulation that the state should be ad- 
mitted "on an equal footing with the original states 
in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental con- 
dition that the said state shall never pass any laws, 
preventing any description of persons from coming 
to and settling in the said state, who are now, or 
hereafter may become citizens of any of the states 
of this Union ; and provided also that the legislature 
of the said state, by a solemn public act, shall de- 
clare the assent of the said state to the said funda- 
mental condition, and shall transmit to the Presi- 
dent of the United States, on or before the 4th day 
of November next, an authentic copy of the said 
act, upon the receipt whereof, the President, by 
proclamation, shall announce the fact ; whereupon, 
and without any further proceeding on the part of 
Congress, the admission of the said state into the 

1 Annate of Congress, p. 1027. 



120 HENRY CLAY 

Union shall be considered complete : And provided 
further, that nothing herein contained shall be con- 
strued to take from the said state of Missouri, when 
admitted into this Union, the exercise of any right 
or power which can now be constitutionally exer- 
cised by any of the original states." ' 

The hope was expressed by the committee (its 
chairman, if all signs do not fail, voicing its opinion 
in the report) that its plan would be received in the 
spirit in which it had been devised. The belief 
was entertained that " all must ardently unite in 
wishing an amicable termination of a question 
which, if it be longer kept open, cannot fail to pro- 
duce, and possibly to perpetuate, prejudices and 
animosities among a people to whom the conserva- 
tion of their moral ties should be even dearer, if 
possible, than that of their political bond." 2 

Amid much confusion, the amendment which 
Mr. Clay's committee had proposed was defeated 
by a small majority, the twenty -fourth time the 
House had refused admission to Missouri with the 
slavery provisions in her constitution. 3 On Feb- 
ruary 13th it was determined to reconsider the vote. 
In a speech upon this motion Mr. Clark of New 
York pertinently said : ' ' The course pursued by 
this House on this subject is (to say the least of it) 
most extraordinary. You will neither dismiss it 
nor decide on it, but you cling to this firebrand of 
discord with the utmost pertinacity without inti- 
mating what your ultimate object is." Mr. Clay 
spoke for an hour, urging and entreating the House 

1 Annals of Congress, p. 1080. 3 Ibid. 

3 Mrs. Dixon, Missouri Compromise, p. 110. 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 121 

to pass the resolution, but it declined by a vote of 
eighty-eight to eighty-two, Randolph and a few 
radical Southerners cooperating with the Northern- 
ers in the hope of defeating the scheme with motives 
very different from those which actuated the anti- 
slavery men. 

Meanwhile the votes for President and Vice-Presi- 
dent were to be counted and a grave dispute arose 
as to whether or not Missouri, which had chosen 
electors, should participate in the election. An- 
other special committee was appointed, with Clay 
as chairman, to confer with a committee of the Sen- 
ate as to the method to be pursued. Continuing 
his conciliatory counsel, since, whether Missouri's 
vote for James Monroe were or were not counted 
would not affect the result, he advised a hypothet- 
ical statement in the sense that if that state's votes 

were counted A. B. would receive votes, if 

not counted votes. This method was finally 

adopted, although there was almost unheard-of ex- 
citement at some points in the proceedings. 

A week later, on February 21st, Mr. Clay's col- 
league, William Brown of Kentucky, offered a reso- 
lution providing for the repeal of that feature of the 
Missouri bill of March 6, 1820, which placed a re- 
striction upon slaveholding in any part of the 
Louisiana Territory. He supported it in a speech 
in which he explained that he did not advocate this 
course because of any conference with his " friend 
and messmate" Henry Clay, who knew nothing 
of his design. " My colleague," he was at pains to 
explain, " who has labored arduously and zealously 
to settle this question and tranquilize the Union, is 



122 HENRY CLAY 

not willing yet to despair ; he indulges the hope 
that something may still be done." The very pos- 
sibility of a serious movement of this kind, however, 
put the matter in a new light before the Northern 
members. If the South were to go back and propose 
the repeal of the " Compromise " feature of the law, 
what might not be expected from that section 1 Of 
course, the Brown resolution did not pass, but the 
question in hand was materially advanced. The 
next day Clay proposed the appointment of a com- 
mittee of the House to meet with a committee of the 
Senate jointly to devise and propose a basis of 
settlement. This motion was passed by a vote of 
101 to 55. A committee of twenty-three members, 
elected by ballot, one for each of the states though 
not from each of the states (for New York as well 
as Pennsylvania had no less than four members) 
met with seven senators, and the joint committee, 
through Clay, reported to the House on February 
26th the following resolution : 



"Resolved by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in Con- 
gress assembled, that Missouri shall be admitted 
iuto the Union on an equal footing with the original 
states in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental 
condition that the 4th clause of the 26th section 
of the 3d article of the Constitution, submitted on 
the part of said state to Congress, shall never be 
construed to authorize the passage of any law, and 
that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, 
by which any citizen of either of the states in this 
Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any 
of the privileges and immunities to which such 
citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 123 

United States : Provided that the legislature of 
said state by a solemn public act, shall declare the 
assent of the said state to the said fundamental 
condition, and shall transmit to the President of the 
United States, on or before the fourth Monday in 
November next, an authentic copy of said act ; upon 
the receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation, 
shall announce the fact ; whereupon, and without 
further proceedings on the part of Congress the 
admission of the said state into the Union shall be 
considered as complete." a 

In the work of securing a favorable vote upon 
this resolution, Clay neglected no resource both on 
and off the floors of Congress. On one occasion at 
an evening sitting after the Speaker, Mr. Taylor, had 
twice declared motions of Mr. Clay out of order and 
in violation of the rules for the procedure of the 
House, the great Kentucky leader rose and pitching 
his voice even beyond its highest wont exclaimed : 
"Then I move to suspend all the rules of the 
House. Away with them ! Is it to be endured 
that we shall be trammeled in our action by mere 
forms and technicalities at a moment like this, 
when the peace and perhaps the existence of the 
Union is at stake ? ' ' One of Mr. Clay' s friends then 
present has said that he carried his point by 
storm. 2 

Nor did he fail to use his persuasive powers upon 
individual members of Congress. Even those who 
were not his friends could speak of " the winning, 

1 Annals of Congress, p. 1228. 

2 John J. Crittenden's speech at Louisville on the "Life and 
Death of Henry Clay," September 29, 1852; Robert C. Win- 
throp's Memoir, p. 8. 



124 HENRY CLAY 

courtly Mr. Clay." ! He reasoned, he appealed to 
the emotions, he remonstrated and urged — in short, 
he neglected nothing which promised to help him 
in gaining the end in view. He predicted that 
failure to come to some agreement would break up 
existing party relations and lead to new combina- 
tions, with results that none could foretell. 

The House passed the resolution of the joint com- 
mittee by a vote of eighty-six to eighty-two, on the 
final vote eighty-seven to eighty-one, and two days 
later, on February 28th, the Senate approved it 
with twenty-eight yeas and fourteen nays. Thus 
the first great crisis in the history of the slavery 
question in this country was met ; thus was Henry 
Clay reinstated in the esteem of many elements 
which had come to question his good motives by 
reason of his opposition to the policies of President 
Monroe. "The greatest result of this conflict of 
three sessions," wrote John Quincy Adams, while 
the enthusiasm of the victory was fresh in his mind 
though he had so lately complained of the " preg- 
nant evidences" of the Kentucky leader's " over- 
bearing " attitude, 2 was " to bring into full display 
the talents and resources of influence of Mr. Clay." 3 

^ni. Winston Seaton, A Biographical Sketch, p. 159. 
3 Vol. V, p. 278. 'Ibid., p. 307. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE ELECTION OF 1824 

As though it were his principal title to a reputa- 
tion, it is iterated and reiterated of Henry Clay that 
he was a disappointed seeker for the presidency. 
The average man and woman of this generation will 
cherish this impression, if they lack all others in re- 
gard to him. The long series of misfortunes attend- 
ing him in the effort to realize this ambition began 
in 1824. James Monroe's two terms were coming 
to their end j the " Virginia dynasty " would pass 
into history and the new impulses introduced into 
political life by the War of 1812 in the persons of 
Clay, Calhoun and, as it seemed, too, of Jackson, 
who awakened the military enthusiasm of the 
people and came to be regarded as a fit candidate 
for the presidency on this account, made the ap- 
proaching campaign a memorable one. 

Mr. Clay was not a member of the Seventeenth 
Congress. When he returned to Lexington at the 
end of the short session in March, 1821, it was to 
continue the work of straightening out his private 
affairs which he had begun during the previous 
summer. He was counsel for the Bank of the 
United States in Ohio and Kentucky at a remunera- 
tive salary, and industriously devoted himself to 
the practice of the law and to the management of 
his interests at " Ashland." At about this time 



126 HENRY CLAY 

Kentucky was undergoing much excitement on the 
subject of paper money. Unsound views regarding 
the currency were everywhere prevalent, and Clay, 
presidential candidate though he was supposed to 
be, firmly upheld the unpopular side in this con- 
troversy. He defended sound financial principles 
at every opportunity, but was not long to be left at 
home in a field so limited in usefulness. The 
Lexington or " Ashland District,' 7 returned him to 
the Congress which met in December, 1823. 

During the summer of that year Mr. Clay was 
very ill, his state of health being ascribed to his 
close application to business. He repaired to the 
Olympian Springs in Kentucky, and, because of 
his failure to improve under the regimen there, 
seriously contemplated spending the ensuing winter 
in the South. He was disinclined to absent himself 
from Congress, however, and set out betimes with a 
light carriage and a saddle horse on his way to 
Washington. Driving, riding and walking by 
turns, he reached the capital, by easy stages, very 
much benefited by the journey. He was, as a mat- 
ter of course, with scarcely any opposition, returned 
to his place in the Speaker's chair, which he had 
graced for so many years. 

Almost his first act upon resuming his seat in the 
House was in line with his attitude in Kentucky on 
the money question. His course was an effective 
rejoinder to any charge affecting his sincerity or 
courage in public life. He actively opposed a bill 
to grant a pension to the mother of Commodore 
Perry. Though every popularity-seeking speaker 
in Congress was eager to array himself on the side 



THE ELECTION OF 1824 127 

of the needy old lady, Clay declared quite posi- 
tively, and not unavailingly, that he could not 
favor the claim. The hero of Lake Erie had not 
died of injuries received in the service of his coun- 
try. The government had already gone quite far 
enough in making provision for his widow and 
children, and there must be some limit to the atten- 
tion bestowed upon military and naval characters at 
the expense of men who were quite as serviceable to 
the republic. ' i Shall we select the families of 
those who wore epaulettes on their shoulders, ' ' he 
asked pertinently, u whilst we leave to pine in 
penury the families of those who have spent their 
lives in civil service 1 ?" l 

Clay's principal claim upon the attention of the 
country as a presidential candidate, aside from his 
recent conspicuous part in bringing about an ac- 
commodation on the Missouri question, was the 
determination with which he pressed his internal 
improvement and protective tariff policies. Al- 
though still in ill health, he took the most active 
part in the discussions of the House. President 
Monroe persisted in his view that it was no proper 
function of the Federal government under the Con- 
stitution to build roads and canals. Clay abated 
nothing of his faith, and in January, 1824, a bill 
appeared in the House authorizing the President to 
direct the making of surveys for a system of interior 
highways, in order to forward postal, commercial 
and military communication. The sum of $30,000 
was set aside for this purpose. 

Clay entered the debate with all the gay spirit of 

1 Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 982. 



128 HENRY CLAY 

his nature. For some time lie Lad been preparing a 
statement of his views which he offered to the 
House on February 14th. 1 A member had said that 
the Constitution contemplated the exercise of all 
"municipal" functions by the states. Mr. Clay 
replied that the navigation of the Mississippi, canals 
connecting the waters of the Delaware and the 
Chesapeake and to unite the Ohio and the Potomac, 
the Cumberland Road, and other enterprises which 
he mentioned, were matters that no state or states 
would ever be likely to forward to definite ends. 
The powers of both governments, national and state, 
were undoubtedly municipal, often operating upon 
the same subject. To him, he said, that " to 
establish post-roads" meant "to fix, to make firm, 
to build," and he would appeal for support "to 
any vocabulary whatever of respectable authority." 
From this " express grant" he passed to the in- 
ferential one in reference to canals, which he traced 
to the power of Congress to regulate commerce with 
foreign nations and among the several states. He 
railed at members who would support bills appro- 
priating money for docks and lighthouses on the 
seacoast to help the foreign trade, and would do 
nothing for domestic trade. He put it to the 
candor of his opponents " whether the only differ- 
ence is not that which springs from the nature of 
the two elements on which the two species of com- 
merce are conducted — the difference between land 
and water." "The principle," he said, "is the 
same whether you promote commerce by opening 
for it an artificial channel where now there is none, 
1 Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 1022. 






THE ELECTION OF 1824 129 

or by increasing the ease and safety with which it 
may be conducted through a natural channel, which 
the bounty of Providence has bestowed. In the one 
case your object is to facilitate arrival and departure 
from the ocean to the land. In the other, it is to 
accomplish the same object from the land to the 
ocean." 

It was also very clear to Mr. Clay that roads and 
canals might be built by the nation for military 
uses. 1 1 These, ' ' he said with great truth, ' ' are in the 
nature of fortifications since, if not the depositories 
of military resources, they enable you to bring into 
rapid action the military resources of the country, 
wherever they may be. They are better than any 
fortifications, because they serve the double purpose 
of peace and war. They dispense, in a great degree, 
with fortifications, since they have all the effect of 
that concentration at which fortifications aim.''' 

As was his wont, he made the cause of the West his 
own, and voiced the hopes and ambitions of his 
people, as it was common to call them, and as they 
truly were in many respects. It would be impossi- 
ble, he said, " to alienate the affections of the West 
from this government. . . . You may impover- 
ish them, reduce them to ruin by the mistakes of 
your policy and you cannot drive them from you." 
They had received little enough — only the Cumber- 
land Eoad which stopped at Wheeling, on the 
" mere margin of a Western state," though he had 
"toiled," until his powers had been "exhausted 
and prostrated," to prevail upon Congress to com- 
plete this highway, that they might have the means 
to reach the capital of their country. The govern- 



130 HENRY CLAY 

meut was to last, he hoped, " forever "—at any rate 
" until the wave of population, cultivation and in- 
telligence shall have washed the Kocky Mountains 
and mingled with the Pacific." Canals and roads 
were but a part of the " improvements and comforts 
of social life " which he wished might spread 
" over the wide surface of this vast continent." 

It was in this discussion that another famous pas- 
sage occurred with John Randolph. In an ex- 
tremely ill-mannered though able discourse, the 
Virginian turned his attention to Mr. Clay's defini- 
tion of the word " establish " as it was used in the 
Constitution. Words he called "the counters of 
wise men, the money of fools," and predicted that 
by the use of them the people would yet be cajoled 
out of their rights and liberties. There never had 
been such violation of language by liberal construc- 
tion " since the days of that unfortunate man of the 
German coast, whose name was origiually Fyerstein, 
anglicized to Firestone, but got by translation from 
that to Flint, from Flint to Pierre-a Fusil and from 
Pierre-a-Fusil to Peter Gun." 1 No one knew what 
"a mass of criminality" may not have been in- 
curred because " never till now had our people a 
preceptor learned enough to instruct them in the 
meaning of the word ' establish.' " 

Mr. Clay rose to reply, evidencing his affront at 
Randolph's language and manner. He believed 
that his situation in health, leading to magnanimity 
in some quarters of the House, would have induced 
a ' ' generous heart ' ' to desist from efforts to draw 
him into a "personal altercation." He made no 

1 Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 1296. 



THE ELECTION OF 1824 131 

pretensions as a "preceptor." "I know my defi- 
ciencies," Mr. Clay continued. "I was born to no 
proud patrimonial estate ; from my father I inher- 
ited only infancy, ignorance and indigence ; " 
whereupon Randolph leaned over to a friend, and 
remarked that the Speaker should have continued 
the alliteration and added "insolence." ! "I feel 
my defects," Clay continued, "but so far as my 
situation in early life is concerned, I may, without 
presumption, say, they are more my misfortune 
than my fault." Thus did the relations between 
these two men grow more unfriendly, leading at 
length to an encounter which Clay in his calmer years 
regarded with much disfavor and self-reproach. 

The bill authorizing the Federal surveys that 
this " Western Hotspur," as some of his foes delighted 
to call him, so ably advocated, passed the House by 
a vote of ninety to seventy-five, and being approved 
by the Senate, was signed by the President on some 
inconsistent excuse. Fruitless though it was, it 
marked an impressive advance in the development 
of our const i tu tional doctrine. 

The tariff of 1816, in the adoption of which he 
had had the aid of Calhoun and the South, was soon 
adjudged by Clay and the protectionists of the Cen- 
tral and Western states to be too low. A little 
usually calls rather loudly for more protection, 
and the measure which was enacted in 1816 was 
really a mild fillip to domestic industries in com- 
parison with many of the later American tariffs. 
An artificial prosperity had followed the war, and 
times were still far from what they should have been 
3 Wm. Winston Seatou, p. 152. 



132 HENKY CLAY 

in the view of many interests. In 1818 the duty en 
iron was increased, and in 1820 Clay, in a long and 
impressive speech in the House, advocated a general 
revision of the law. 1 Though it passed that branch 
of Congress largely through his influence, it failed 
in the Senate by a single vote, and it was still before 
the country in 1821 upon his return to active par- 
liamentary life. 

It was in this debate that Clay christened his 
policy the "American system," a name which it 
continued to bear to its very great advantage for 
many years. His important speech on this subject 
was made in the House of Eepresentatives on March 
30th and 31st ; he spoke for four and one-half hours 
on the 30th and concluded on the following day. 
"The object of the bill under consideration," he 
said at one point, " is to create this home market 
and to lay the foundations of a genuine American 
policy." " Is there no remedy within the reach of 
the government ? " he said again, after depicting the 
country's ills. " Are we doomed to behold our in- 
dustry languish and decay yet more and more ? But 
there is a remedy and that remedy consists in mod- 
ifying our foreign policy, and in adopting a genuine 
American system." 

It was true, as was remarked the following day 
by Webster, who sympathized with the New Eng- 
enders who were still free-traders, in defense, *as 
they believed, of their shipping trade, that the 
u American system" was misnamed, but this did 
not at all matter. ' ' Since Mr. Speaker denominates 
the policy which he recommends l a new policy in 

1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 218. 



THE ELECTION OF 1824 133 

this country/" said Webster, with some reason; 
" since he speaks of the present measure as a new 
era in our legislation j since he professes to invite 
us to depart from our accustomed course, to instruct 
ourselves by the wisdom of others, and to adopt the 
policy of the most distinguished foreign states, — 
one is a little anxious to know with what propriety 
of speech this imitation of other nations is denomi- 
nated an i American policy, ' while on the contrary 
a preference for our own established system, as it 
now actually exists and always has existed, is called 
a ' foreign policy.' This favorite American policy 
is what America has never tried ; and this odious 
foreign policy is what, as we are told, foreign states 
have never pursued." 

That Mr. Clay's argument at all points did not 
betray complete mastery of the principles of polit- 
ical economy need occasion no very great surprise. 
He was not a profound student of that subject. He 
expressed himself as under some obligations to 
Mathew Carey, who was industriously propagating 
protectionist theories in Philadelphia. He had a 
mass of information in hand bearing upon the in- 
dustrial condition of the country, most of which was 
entirely reliable, and arraying all this in order, and 
ornamenting it for oratorical use, it became very 
effective in a legislative chamber. It is easy to find 
the flaws in his line of reasoning, and some are much 
too obvious ; but in general it reflected credit upon 
his learning, and greatly increased his reputation 
for sincerity of heart. In the main an argumenta- 
tive discourse, flowers of speech were not entirely 
eschewed, as when he said : 



134 HENRY CLAY 

"The difference between a nation with and with- 
out the arts may be conceived by the difference be- 
tween a keel-boat and a steamboat combating the 
rapid torrent of the Mississippi. How slow does 
the former ascend, hugging the sinuosities of the 
shore, pushed on by her hardy and exposed crew, 
now throwing themselves in vigorous concert on 
their oar3 and then seizing the pendant boughs of 
overhanging trees : she seems hardly to move ; and 
her scanty cargo is scarcely worth the transporta- 
tion ! With what ease is she not passed by the 
steamboat, laden with the riches of all quarters of 
the world, with a crew of gay, cheerful and pro- 
tected passengers, now dashing into the midst of the 
current, or gliding through the eddies near the 
shore ! " 

He closed with a statement of the difficulties which 
beset the advocates of the bill. They were, he said : 
" First, the splendid talents which are arrayed in 
this House against us. Second, we are opposed by 
the rich and powerful in the land. Third, the ex- 
ecutive government, if any, affords us but a cold 
and equivocal support. Fourth, the importing and 
navigating interests, I verily believe from miscon- 
ception, are adverse to us. Fifth, the British fac- 
tors and the British influence are inimical to our 
success. Sixth, long- established habits and preju- 
dices oppose us. Seventh, the reviewers and liter- 
ary speculators, foreign and domestic. And lastly, 
the leading presses of the country, including the in- 
fluence of that which is established in this city and 
sustained by the public purse. 

"From some of these, or other causes, the bill 



THE ELECTION OF 1824 135 

may be postponed, thwarted, defeated. But the 
cause is the cause of the country, and it must, and 
will prevail. It is founded in the interests and af- 
fections of the people. It is as native as the granite 
deeply embosomed in our mountains. And, in con- 
clusion, I would pray God, in His infinite mercy, 
to avert from our country the evils which are im- 
pending over it and by enlightening our councils to 
conduct us into that path which leads to riches, to 
greatness, to glory." 

This speech is regarded by Mr. Schurz as u the 
most elaborate and effective" Clay ever made. 1 No 
ideas which are not very familiar to those who have 
followed the course of protectionist speech and wri- 
ting in this country in a century, under the inspira- 
tion of the two Careys, were developed by the Ken- 
tuckian ; but it is probable that no one up to that 
time at least had ever presented them so fully and 
forcibly. The bill passed the House by a majority 
of three and the Senate by the same small majority. 
Its enactment was effected mainly by the votes of 
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Calhoun and 
the South were now rapidly changing their position 
in reference to this subject, 2 and New England had 
not yet joined the Middle states in support of the 
policy of which, in later years, it became the unfail- 
ing champion. 

Thus did Clay stand as a public man when at the 
end of Monroe's second term a successor was to be 
chosen to the presidency. There were in the field, 
principally, John Quincy Adams, in line for the 

1 Vol. I, p. 214. 2 Hunt, Calhoun, p. 61 et seq. 



136 HENKY CLAY 

succession by reason of his service as Secretary of 
State and his large public experience ; Jackson, now 
a senator from Tennessee, the military candidate ; 
Clay, Calhouu, Monroe's Secretary of War ; aud 
Secretary of the Treasury, William H. Crawford, 
the skilful Georgia politician whose name is now all 
but gone out of the popular mind. 

In the contest which was in prospect Clay was not 
to be so promiuent a factor as he and his friends 
hoped and perhaps anticipated. He did not con- 
ceal his desire to become the successor of Mr. Mon- 
roe. His claims were actively supported by Thomas 
H. Benton, a cousin of Mrs. Clay, now lately come 
to the Senate from the new state of Missouri. The 
candidate had devoted lieutenants in many states, 
the personal attachment to him in quarters wherein 
he was at all admired being of a remarkable kind. 
It was at a day when aspirants for the presidency 
were not nominated in party conventions, and in 
this " era of good feeling' all were nominally 
members of the same party. The congressional 
caucus, as a means of agreeing upon a candidate, 
had fallen iuto disfavor, and the issue was largely 
in the hands of state conventions and legislatures. 

As early as in 1822, Clay was nominated for the 
presidency by the Kentucky legislature, and other 
states had also expressed their preference for him. 
In the region in which his strongest support might 
have been expected, however, the West and South, 
Jackson made large inroads. The " hero of New 
Orleans" suddenly became the stuff out of which 
it was thought by the masses of the people that a 
great lawgiver might be made. He gained the 



THE ELECTION OF 1824 137 

electoral votes of a number of states, and indeed led 
the poll with, ninety-nine against eighty-four for 
Adams, forty-one for Crawford and thirty-seveu for 
Clay. As no one had a majority, the election was 
thrown into the House of Representatives, which 
now by constitutional provision, was required to 
choose from among the three leading candidates. 
This was a task of some difficulty in the existing 
state of popular feeling and the result might very 
likely have been the election of Clay, the favorite 
Speaker of the House, if he had been on the eligible 
list. As it was, with the electoral votes of Ken- 
tucky, Ohio and Missouri, and four votes from New- 
York, he was considered to control the situation, 
and was courted by all the aspirants in the hope 
that he would forward their respective ambitious. 
Some have thought that he did not very gracefully 
accept his own defeat ; but he had lost nothing as a 
national figure and his prominence, indeed, was en- 
hanced by his situation. 

In the midst of the excitement, it was his pleasant 
duty as Speaker of the House to welcome Lafayette, 
whose coming to America, in 1824, everywhere 
awakened the dearest national memories. 1 The 
Kentuckian had long been in correspondence with 
the old patriot, who was completely captivated by 
the young statesman's warm heart, somewhat French 
as it probably was, with all its graces and quick 
impulses. Mr. Clay's address on this occasion was 

1 Indeed, it was suggested that Lafayette should be elected 
Vice-President and Clay wrote his friend, Senator J. S. Johnston, 
on September 3, 1824—'- Such a disposition of the office would 
be highly creditable to the national gratitude, if it could be 
made without any constitutional impediment." 



138 HENEY CLAY 

most happy. He spoke of "the very nigh satisfac- 
tion which your presence affords in this early theatre 
of your glory and renown." In one respect he 
would find the Americans unaltered — " in the senti- 
ment of continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent 
affection, and profound gratitude to your departed 
friend, the father of his country, and to you and 
your illustrious associates in the field and in the 
cabinet for the multiplied blessings which surround 
us." This sentiment, he continued, " now fondly 
cherished by more than ten millions of people, will 
be transmitted with unabated vigor down the tide of 
time through the countless millions who are des- 
tined to inhabit this continent, to the latest pos- 
terity." 

This interregnum, during which all factious for- 
got their differences, was only brief. Even Jackson 
thought it well to try to win the favor of Clay, 
though the latter' s course in condemning the gen- 
eral's conduct in Florida during the Seminole War 
still rankled. No one seems to have known just 
where the Kentucky leader would be found when 
the task of choosing from among Jackson, Adams 
and Crawford really faced him. Crawford could not 
have tempted a man like Clay, uor did he exert auy 
fascination upon the country at large. He had 
lately suffered partial paralysis, so that he was not 
able to append his name to the documents in the 
Treasury Department. Clay wrote from ' ' Ashland ' ' 
to his friend, J. S. Johnston, on October 2, 1824, that 
he had just heard from a man who had seen Craw- 
ford. " He says that his gait, articulation, and 
general appearance indicated most clearly the 



THE ELECTION OF 1824 139 

paralysis under which he has labored ; and that he 
appeared to be much more infirm than Mr. Jeffer- 
son at the age of eighty-two, whom he also saw." * 
The real choice lay between Jackson and Adams. 
It is rather difficult now to see how there was room 
to expect any but one result. With General Jackson 
Clay could have nothing in common, so far as good 
judges of humau nature are able to discern. Their 
courses up to this time indicate no meeting-ground, 
and as their characters were unfolded later, sincerely 
and naturally enough, in spite of exaggeration here 
and there for personal antagonism, no congeniality 
of view presented itself. Clay could not give his 
support to a" military chieftain merely because he 
has won a great victory." He could not believe 
that "killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans " 
qualified for " the various difficult and complicated 
duties of the chief magistracy." a 

It is true that Adams and Clay had come into con- 
flict at Ghent. They were men of essential differ- 
ences. If Adams's diary does not magnify, they 
had had a bitter dispute about the disposition of the 
papers affecting the negotiations, though it was a 
puerile quarrel, and should not have left open 
wounds. Adams here and there in his journal had 
expressed unfavorable opinions of Clay, but few, who 
were subjects for allusion at all, escaped his criti- 
cisms. Anyhow, they were just passing views con- 
fided to a diary which is always a trusted friend. 
Once in 1820, however, Adams had said of Clay, 
alluding to his habit of playing cards for money, 

1 Letter in Collections of Pennsylvania Historical Society. 
* To F. P. Blair, Jan. 29, 1825, Private Correspondence, p. 112. 



140 HENRY CLAY 

which report, among his political enemies, was per- 
sistently attributed to him : u In politics as in pri- 
vate life Clay is essentially a gamester, and with a 
vigorous intellect, an ardent spirit, a handsome 
elocution, though with a mind very defective in 
elementary knowledge and a very undigested system 
of ethics, he has all the qualities which belong to 
that class of human characters." 1 The next year 
Adams, again stung by some attack, said : " Clay 
is an eloquent man with very popular manners and 
great political management. He is, like almost all 
the eminent men of this country, only half-educated. 
His school has been the world and in that he is a 
proficient. His morals, public and private, are loose 
but he has all the virtues indispensable to a popular 
man. . . . Clay's temper is impetuous and his 
ambition impatient. . . . As President of the 
Union his administration would be a perpetual suc- 
cession of intrigue and management with the legisla- 
ture. It would also be sectional in its spirit, and 
sacrifice all other interests to those of the Western 
country and the slaveholders." 2 

These were harsh opinions from a man who was 
now to be President or not to be President, by the 
favor of him concerning whom they were uttered ; 
but that they had been cherished or recorded no one 
knew until the diary was published, twenty-five 
years after Clay's death. It is not likely, anyhow, 
that the revelation of them would have influenced 
the action of a heart so magnanimous. 

The Jackson men made much of the fact that their 
candidate had received a plurality of votes. They 

1 Memoirs, Vol. V, p. 59. 2 Ibid., pp. 325-326. 



THE ELECTION OF 1824 141 

pretended to believe that this imposed an obligation 
upon the House, which, however, refused to be 
bound by it, for Clay and his men very soon made it 
clear that they would support John Quincy Adams. 
This knowledge aroused all the ire in Jackson's 
nature, and his forces, many of whom were always 
recruited from the rough and lawless elements of the 
population, turned upon Clay savagely. He was 
treated to anonymous letters, threatening him with 
personal injury, and efforts of mau3 r kinds were 
made to move him from his determination. 

" No man but myself," he said later, in reviewing 
the trials of this exx^erience, " could know the 
nature, extent and variety of means which were 
employed to awe and influence me." " The knaves 
cannot comprehend how a man can be honest," he 
wrote to Francis P. Blair. " They cannot conceive 
that I should have solemnly interrogated my con- 
science, and asked it to tell me seriously what I ought 
to do." l " They all have yet to learn my charac- 
ter," he said in a letter to his friend Brooke, " if they 
suppose it possible to make me swerve from my 
duty by any species of intimidation or denuncia- 
tion." 

None of these devices availed. "I shall view 
without emotion," he further wrote Brooke, "these 
effusions of malice and remain unshaken in my 
purpose. What is a public man worth if he will 
not expose himself, on fit occasions, for the good of 
the country'?" 

The most dastardly trick of all was the publication 
of a letter, on January 28th, less than a fortnight 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 112. 



142 HENRY CLAY 

before the election in the House, in the Columbian 
Observer, an inconspicuous newspaper issued in 
Philadelphia. The correspondent wrote from Wash- 
ington. He took his pen in hand to tell the editor 
of "one of the most disgraceful transactions that 
ever covered with infamy the Republican ranks." 
He had heard of a " bargain " which was as bad as 
"the famous Burr conspiracy of 1801." Adams 
had offered Clay the post of Secretary of State after 
Jackson had refused the overtures of Clay to the 
same end. Such doings would mean the "end of 
liberty." No name was signed to the communica- 
tion, but it was said to have come from a member 
of Congress. 

Clay was probably too hasty in leaping at such 
an assailant, but on February 1, 1825, he issued a 
card in the National Intelligencer, the most essential 
portion of which was his statement that, if the letter 
were not a forgery, he would "pronounce the 
member, whoever he may be, a base and infamous 
calumniator, a dastard and a liar." "If he dare 
unveil himself and avow his name," Mr. Clay con- 
tinued, " I will hold him responsible, as I here 
admit myself to be, to all the laws which govern 
and regulate men of honor." He soon repented 
of the last words of his statement, especially when 
he learned the identity of the writer of the letter. 
He said afterward that he did not wish to seem to 
be the patron of the duel, " a pernicious practice 
which no man could hold in deeper abhorrence." 
"Condemned as it must be," he added, "by the 
judgment and philosophy, to say nothing of the 
religion of every thinking man, it is an affair of 



THE ELECTION OF 1824 143 

feeling about which we cannot, although we should 
reason. Its true corrective will be found when all 
shall unite, as we all ought to unite, in its unquali- 
fied proscription." The writer of the letter when 
he came out of hiding, which he did in a day or 
two in i i another card ' ' in the National Intelligencer, 
proved to be George Krenier, a Pennsylvania con- 
gressman, a well-known partisan of Jackson. He 
was a quite ridiculous figure in Washington, as at 
home. He was mainly famous for his leopard skin 
overcoat, and eccentric behavior generally, so that 
Mr. Clay, as none knew better than he, had shot at 
too small a mark. 

Nevertheless, Clay asked for the appointment of 
a committee in the House to investigate the charge. 
It was elected by ballot. Kremer, who had been so 
bold, now refused to give any authority for his 
allegations, and there was no report except a state- 
ment to this effect which was made on February 
9th, the very day that the House assembled to elect 
a President of the United States. Adams was 
chosen, receiving the votes of thirteen states, while 
Jackson was supported by only seven and Crawford 
by four delegations. Clay was appointed Secretary 
of State, and although Jackson and fourteen other 
senators voted against the confirmation of the name, 
the result was accomplished without them. 

With Adams and Clay both in their offices, the 
"terms of the bargain'' wore the appearance of 
having been carried out. In the minds of many 
people, Clay's acceptance of the position strength- 
ened the impression of the existence of an under- 
standing between him and Adams, or, at any rate, 



144 HEXKY CLAY 

between their respective friends. In vain did Clay 
say that he had no alternative bnt to choose Adams 
as President j he could not conscientiously favor 
Jackson. In vain did Adams explain that he de- 
sired to avail himself of Clay's great experience as 
a public man, which had been the sole motive in 
appointing him to be the head of the State Depart- 
ment. In vain was the retort that James Buchanan 
and others had proffered Clay a place as Secretary 
of State in Jackson's cabinet, if he would but sup- 
port the hero of New Orleans. In vain did both 
men now and hereafter resent the imputations of 
their enemies. 

Kremer had been a mere instrument and dupe. 
Jackson himself returned to Tennessee raging about 
u bargain and corruption" and the "great con- 
spiracy," while his friends took up the cry and 
circulated it until there was no backwoods settle- 
ment which was not able to talk fluently of the 
event for the next twenty years, unsupported as it 
was by one scintilla of evidence. 1 As late as in 
1844, when Jackson reiterated the charge, it again 
deprived Clay of votes which he needed, and might 
have had at the election of that year. Even if 
there had been such a bargain, there was no neces- 
sary inference of corruption, yet this incident was 
the stalking horse of politics throughout the whole 
Jacksonian epoch in our national history. The 
oftener the story was repeated, the more it was 
denied. Colton in his Life of Clay devoted four 
chapters of his work to the "corrupt bargain," 

1 Schurz, Vol. I, p. 246 et seq. ; Sumner, Jackson, p. 90 
et seq. 






THE ELECTION OF 1824 145 

and the bugaboo grew greater each time the subject 
was discussed. 

Ou March 3d, Clay retired from the House of 
Representatives, and from his place as its Speaker, 
which he had held almost continuously since the day 
he entered the chamber. A resolution was passed, 
thanking him for u the able, impartial and dignified 
manner 1 ' in which he had presided over the de- 
liberations of the body, and Mr. Clay in response 
made a graceful speech in the course of which he said : 

"Near fourteen years, with but comparatively 
short intervals, the arduous duties of the chair have 
been assigned to me. ... Of the numerous 
decisions which I have been called upon to pro- 
nounce from this place on questions often suddenly 
started, and of much difficulty, it has so happened 
from the generous support given me, that not one of 
them has ever been reversed by the House. I ad- 
vert to this fact, not in a vain spirit of exultation, 
but as furnishing a powerful motive for undis- 
sembled gratitude. In retiring, perhaps forever, 
from a situation with which so large a portion of 
my life has been associated, I shall continually re- 
vert, during the remainder of it, with increasing 
respect and gratitude to this great theatre of our 
public action. . . . In returning to your respect- 
ive families and constituents, I beg all of you, 
without exception, to carry with you my fervent 
prayers for the continuation of your lives, your 
health and your happiness." 

To John Quincy Adams he was "the unrivaled 
Speaker," ' while Eobert C. Winthrop of Massachu- 

1 New Jersey Letter, 1827. 



146 HENEY CLAY 

setts declared: "Mr. Clay was six times elected 
Speaker of the House, and held that lofty position 
longer than any one in the history of our country 
before or since. No abler or more commanding 
officer ever sat in a Speaker's chair on either side of 
the Atlantic. Prompt, dignified, resolute, fearless, 
he had a combination of intellectual and physical 
qualities which made him a natural ruler over men. 
There was a magnetism in his voice and manner 
which attracted the willing attention, acquiescence 
and even obedience of those over whom he pre- 
sided." 

No painstaking student of parliamentary law, he 
relied usually upon his own instinctive sense of 
what was proper and practicable in the emergency 
at hand. Once, many years afterward, he said to 
Mr. Winthrop, while the latter occupied the chair : 

" I have attentively observed your course as 
Speaker, and I have heartily approved it. But let 
me give you one hint from the experience of the 
oldest survivor of your predecessors. Decide — de- 
cide promptly— and never give your reasons for the 
decision. The House will sustain your decisions, 
but there will always be men to cavil and quarrel 
about your reasons. ' 7 l 

This brilliant epoch in his life had now come 
to an end. Mr. Clay is to be viewed in a new field 
— as Secretary of State. 

1 Winthrop, Memoir of Clay, p. 8. 



CHAPTER VII 

SECRETARY OF STATE 

It is quite likely that no four years in Clay's 
life were so unhappy as those which he spent at the 
head of the Department of State. Though he wished 
the office, probably only as a stepping-stone to the 
presidency, which he believed it to be, he must have 
realized after the experience that he was preemi- 
nently intended by nature for other public fields. 
His place was as a parliamentary leader. He was 
the Prince Rupert of debate. There was meagre, if 
any, satisfaction in store for him in the places where 
governmental tasks are quietly performed, and he 
chafed until he became quite ill under the restraints 
of his position. He knew himself well when he wrote 
to Francis Brooke on February 18, 1825, while dis- 
cussing the expediency of accepting the office : "I 
have an unaffected repugnance to any executive 
employment. " 

The years during which he was Secretary of State 
yielded few notable results to the nation and were 
marked by personal bitterness, rancor and discord. 
They were filled with the echoes of the presidential 
contest of 1824, and the noise which preceded the 
greater battle to be waged in 1828. There were few 
opportunities for Clay to speak, or to do any of 
those things which gave him most joy and which 
enabled him to shine brightly as a public character. 



148 HEKRY CLAY 

He loved the din of action. He needed apprecia- 
tion and praise. He was, beyond most men, raised 
up by success and cast down by defeat. He was 
likely to be over -joyous or over-despondent, and 
his moods made him a man whom many of his con- 
temporaries, as well as his later judges, did not 
always understand. 

The experience served at least to make a friend 
of John Quincy Adams, whose colder, more severe 
views of life had sometimes led to misunderstanding. 
In a speech at Lexington on July 12, 1827, Clay 
said of Adams : — "I have found him at the head of 
the government, able, enlightened, patient of inves- 
tigation and ever ready to receive with respect and 
when approved by his judgment to act upon the 
counsels of his official advisers. . . . From the 
commencement of the government, with the excep- 
tion of Mr. Jeiferson's administration, no chief 
magistrate has found the members of his cabinet so 
united on all public measures, aud so cordial and 
friendly in all their intercourse, private and official, 
as these are of the present President." 

To Crawford he wrote, in the next year : "I had 
fears of Mr. Adams's temper and disposition, but I 
must say that they have not been realized and I 
have found in him, since I have been associated 
with him in the executive government, as little to 
censure and condemn as I could have expected in 
any man." l On the other hand, Mr. Adams, by 
closer acquaintance, was brought greatly to admire 
his Secretary of State. His diary for this period 
contains mauy friendly references, — and none that 
1 Private Correspondence, p. 194. 



SECRETAKY OF STATE 149 

are unfriendly— to Mr. Clay. Their relations were 
at every point harmonious, else record would have 
been made of it by the diarist. It has been so often 
said of Clay that he was an unseemly seeker after 
the presidency that his devotion to his chief in 
these years needs to be noted. He thought and 
spoke of no other candidate for the succession ex- 
cept Adams himself. No disloyalty like that which 
Chase, another man whose ambitions are often under 
review, exhibited toward Lincoln, characterized 
Clay. He served with deference. He consulted 
when differences of opinion arose and acceded 
gracefully. 

The President and his Secretary of State were fel- 
low sufferers in such a storm of calumny as had not 
been experienced by any public man since John 
Adams was helped out of office through this agency 
by the Jeffersonians. The son was now living 
through a like period, and would suffer in the same 
way at the hands of the Jackson men, a still ruder 
type of Democrats, recruited from the growing 
back-settlements of the West, and fed upon new 
ideas of equality which had never yet gained a 
practical ascendency in the management of the gov- 
ernment. Hitherto the people, though they were 
" equal," were willing by common consent to place 
their superiors in public office. They felt an honest 
pride in doing this. Now for the first time skill 
and experience in statecraft, and learning of all 
kinds, were to be cast to the four winds, and the 
government was to be directed on an entirely dif- 
ferent plan. 

Adams's view of Clay was sincerely expressed 



150 HENRY CLAT 

shortly after he left the presidency. He said in 
reference to the " corrupt bargain" story on March 
11, 1829, in reply to a letter from a committee in 
New Jersey : ' ' Upon him [Clay] the foulest slan- 
ders have been showered. . . . The Department 
of State itself was a station, which, by its bestowal, 
could confer neither profit nor honor upon him, but 
upon which he has shed unfading honor by the 
manner in which he has discharged its duties. 
Prejudice and passion have charged him with ob- 
taining that office by bargain and corruption. Be- 
fore you, my fellow citizens, in the presence of our 
country and of Heaven, I pronounce that charge 
totally unfounded. ... As to my motives for 
tendering to him the Department of State when I 
did, let that man who questions them come forward. 
Let him look around among statesmen and legisla- 
tors of this nation, and of that dav. Let him then 
select and name the man, whom, by his preeminent 
talents, by his splendid services, by his ardent 
patriotism, by his all-embracing public spirit, by 
his fervid eloquence in behalf of the rights and lib- 
erties of mankind, by his long experience in the 
affairs of the Union, foreign and domestic, a Presi- 
dent of the United States, intent only upon the 
honor and welfare of his country, ought to have pre- 
ferred to Henry Clay." ' 

These four years in the history of the State De- 
partment were not productive of any important pub- 
lic measure. One there would have been if it had 
succeeded, the first Pan-American Congress. The 
subject of our relations with the Spanish- American 
1 Prentice, Appendix, pp. 300-301. 












SECRETARY OF STATE 161 

countries was one which, now as before, strongly 
appealed to Clay's ardentl} 7 sympathetic nature and 
to his lively imagination. The experience here, as 
in other affairs, at close range with all the facilities 
for being apprised of the facts and with the respon- 
sibility of acting upon them, which a speaker in a 
legislative chamber seldom or never feels, was quiet- 
iug aud educational in its influence. The southern 
republics themselves had originated the plan for the 
congress which was to be held on the Isthmus of 
Panama at the junction point of the hemispheres. 
The scheme had been in mind for several years and 
the hope, of course, was the formation of a kind of 
cis- Atlantic Pan- American League to opx)Ose its 
trout against any possible European aggression now 
or in time to come. It was an undertaking of large 
dimensions and it sorely needed the favor of the 
United States. 

No more fortunate time could have been selected 
than during Clay's administration of the State De- 
partment, but after all the plans were laid, circum- 
stances arose wholly to prevent success. President 
Adams, who at first disapproved, was induced to 
favor the enterprise and he submitted to Congress 
a proposal for sending commissioners to the meet- 
ing. As a matter of course, the administration's ar- 
rangements were opposed. The slaveholding ele- 
ment, since the Missouri discussion, was being con- 
solidated. Adams, in his message, expressed such 
hopes for the nation under the Constitution as had 
not been heard since Hamilton's day. He favored 
not only extensive internal improvements, but also 
a national university and establishments to promote 



152 HENRY CLAY 

" the cultivation of the mechanic and of the elegant 
arts, the advancement of literature, the progress of 
the sciences, ornamental and profound.* ! This was 
a monstrous theory at a time when the country had 
just emerged from twenty-four years of strict con- 
struction at the hands of the Virginians. It was 
now becoming convenient for Calhoun and his fol- 
lowers in the South to interpret the Constitution in 
the most niggard way in reference to the national 
powers. In state rights they conceived that they 
would find their stronghold against the Xorth, 
which they were shrewd enough to see was bearing 
them down to an inevitable fate. 1 

Though the Panama Congress could not of itself 
be held to be unconstitutional, it was the project of 
a man who cherished and sought to impose upon 
the country very unconstitutional theories. More- 
over, the slaveholders feared association with states 
which had emancipated their negroes and which very 
likely might send black men to the conference as 
delegates. At length, however, opinion in Con- 
gress was appeased in some degree, since the under- 
taking promised to be very popular in the country 
at large ; the ministers were confirmed by the Senate, 
and the money was appropriated to bear the ex- 
penses of the mission. These envoys were John 
Sergeant of Pennsylvania and Richard C. Anderson 
of Kentucky. Clay had hoped to secure the serv- 
ices of Albert Gallatin, who, however, declined. 
The delegates started away in the summer of 1826, 
Anderson dying on the journey, whereupon Joel R. 
Poinsett, our Minister in Mexico, was asked to take 

1 Hunt, Calhoun. 



^=1 



SECRETARY OF STATE 153 

his place in the congress. When Sergeant arrived 
upon the ground, the Spanish- America us who, then 
as now, were like mercury, had adjourned to reas- 
semble in Mexico, but, involving themselves again 
in some of their inevitable revolutions, the second 
meeting was never held. The mission came to 
naught, except as a lesson to Mr. Clay, to put his 
faith not again in his earlier absolute way in the 
people of Latin America, though they should live 
in "republics" under "presidents." 

It was during the discussion in relation to the 
Panama mission that Mr. Clay was moved to great 
anger by a foul speech which fell from the lips of 
John Randolph. This man was growing more and 
more abusive and irresponsible in his utterances. 
In the summer of 1828 President Adams wrote of 
him that he was "the image and superscription of 
a great man stamped upon base metal." His mind 
was "a jumble of sense, wit and absurdity." ' It 
was in one of his "drunken speeches" in the Sen- 
ate, to which chamber he had been advanced late 
in 1825 to fill a vacancy, that he made his famous 
allusion to Adams and Clay as "the coalition of 
Blifil and Black George." 

Throughout it was probably the most blackguardly 
speech ever heard in either branch of Congress, but 
the confusion of the sentences, and the mental con- 
dition of the man who uttered them should have 
kept Mr. Clay, as it did Mr. Adams, from taking 
particular note of it. However, since the Panama 
missiou was Mr. Clay's particular measure, and he 
had been stung before by Randolph's tongue, it 

1 Memoirs, Vol. VIII, p. 64. 



154 HEXRY CLAY 

eeemed impossible for him to sit quietly under th« 
outrageous attack. Randolph maundered along, 
frequently introducing Greek and Latin phrases, 
and making many allusions to the figures in ancient 
history, holy and profane, in the history of Russia, 
Shakespeare, Don Quixote, Gil Bias, and nearly 
everything else which time had crowded into his 
mind. He indulged in remarks that drove the 
ladies from the galleries and was vainly urged by 
Hayne and other senators to take his seat. This he 
would not do until he believed himself done. He 
poured his ridicule upon a President who had been 
elected to be President of the United States, but was 
now busily engaged in trying to make himself 
" the President of the human race." " Who made 
him his brother's keeper?" Randolph inquired. 
' ' Who gave him — the President of the United States 
— the custody of the liberties, or the rights, or the 
interests of South America, or any other America, 
save only the United States of America, or any 
other country under the sun ? " They used to race 
horses, play cards and play billiards, but these 
things were forbidden, and the tedium vitce now 
found expression in Sunday-schools, missionary 
societies, colonization societies — " taking care of the 
Sandwich Islands, free negroes, and God knows 
who." He had seen pious people in Virginia. 
Though the little negroes about them were so ragged 
as to be obliged to hide for shame, the women of the 
family were "employed in makiug pantaloons and 
jackets for the free negroes of Liberia." 

Randolph dwelt with great brutality upon the 
subject of the " corrupt bargain." il An alliance, 



i 

■j 



SECRETARY OF STATE 155 

offensive and defensive, had been got up between 
old Massachusetts and Kentucky j between the frost 
of January and young, blithe, buxom and blooming- 
May — the eldest daughter of Virginia, — young- 
Kentucky — not so young, however, as to make a 
prudent match and sell her charms for her full 
value.'' He began his allusion to Blifil and Black 
George by asking, " On what occasion was it thai 
Junius said, after Lord Chatham had said it before 
him, that it reminded him of the union between 
Blifil and Black George ? " He would not say which 
was Blifil and which was Black George. When he 
drew pictures, he did not write under them, "This 
is a man" or "This is ahorse." Continuing his 
observations, he came to a vote upon some resolu- 
tions which had gone against him. " I was de- 
feated, horse, foot and dragoons," he declared, 
" cut up and clean broke down by the coalition of 
Blifil and Black George — by the combination un- 
heard of till then of the Puritan with the blackleg." 

"Having disposed of this subject," continued 
Randolph, " I shall say one word more and sit 
down," but his promise was not fulfilled and he spun 
his mad skein of words for another hour. 1 

When the report of this speech reached Clay's 
ears, he challenged Randolph, in the old Southern 
fashion, though but for Benton's extended report of 
the affair it would not have proven itself much bet- 
ter entitled to serious place in the annals of dueling 
than Clay's earlier experience upon the "field of 

1 Register of Debates in Congress, 1825-1826, Vol. II, Part I, 
p. 389 et seq ; also Garland's Life of John Randolph, Vol, II, 
p. 249 et seq. 



156 HEXKY GLAY 

honor." He bad lately exi)ressed his very great 
distaste for this method of settling private disputes, 
after he had reflected, as will be remembered, upon 
his outburst of rage following the publication of 
George Kreiner's letter in a newspaper in Philadel- 
phia. He sincerely hated it and was really him- 
self very inexpert in the use of weapons, so that he 
must have fared badly in any serious encounter. 
His ardent temperament, however, seemed to com- 
pel him to resent gross imputations upon his honor 
in this way, and he now issued another challenge 
which Randolph accepted promptly. From begin- 
ning to end the duel was a drama full of comical 
punctilio, though it might easily have ended fatally, 
for the principals were much in earnest. 

Randolph's speech was delivered on the 30th of 
March. On April 1st, according to Benton, Gen- 
eral Jesup, Clay's second, found the eccentric old 
Virginian and the arrangements were made for a 
meeting. The time fixed was at half-past four 
o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday, April 8th, on 
the Virginia bank of the Potomac, above the Little 
Falls Bridge. The combatants were to use pistols 
at the distance of ten paces. Benton, according to 
the "code," was barred from serving as a second, 
because he was a blood relation of Mrs. Clay, but 
lie was "at liberty to attend as a mutual friend." 
The men stood up and gravely observed all the cus- 
toms of duelists, the fire of each at the first passage 
having missed the object for which it was designed. 
Randolph's bullet struck the stump behind Mr. 
Clay, and Clay's " knocked up the earth and gravel 
behind Mr. Randolph." 



SECRETARY OF STATE 157 

The mutual friend, Benton, now interposed, but 
both men demanded another shot. Clay again 
missed his mark, merely piercing the skirt of a white 
flannel wrapper which Randolph had curiously worn 
for the occasion. "The unseemly garment," says 
Mallory, 1 "constituted such a vast circumference 
that the locality of the thin and swarthy senator 
was at least a matter of very vague conjecture." 
Randolph himself fired his second shot into the air 
in some chivalrous spirit which took possession of 
his eccentric moods, saying, "I do not fire at you, 
Mr. Clay." 2 He advanced toward his antagonist, 
offering his hand and remarking, as he pointed to 
the bullet-hole, that Clay owed him a coat. The 
Secretary of Stata said in his happiest way, " I am 
glad the debt is no greater." Thus ended, what was 
for Benton, at least, as he wrote in later life, " the 
last high-toned duel " that he had seen. It was in- 
deed "among the highest- toned " that he had ever 
witnessed. 3 

A number of treaties and conventions with for- 
eign powers were negotiated during Clay's incum- 
bency of the secretaryship. These related largely 

1 Vol. I, p. 147. 

9 The night before the duel Randolph sent for his friend Gen- 
eral James Hamilton of South Carolina, who said of that inter- 
view : "I found him calm, hut in a singularly kind and confi- 
ding mood. He told me that he had something on his mind to 
tell me. He then remarked, ' Hamilton, I have determined to 
receive without returning Clay's fire ; nothing shall induce me 
to harm a hair of his head. I will not make his wife a widow, 
or his children orphans. Their tears would be shed over his 
grave, but when the sod of Virginia rests on my bosom there is 
not in this wide world one individual to pay this tribute upon 
mine.' " 

3 Benton, Thirty Years 1 View, Vol. I, p. 70. 



158 HENRY CLAY 

to commerce and navigation. There was little op- 
portunity for a brilliant foreign policy which it is 
certain that Clay would have directed had the oc- 
casion presented itself. The passages with other 
governments, in which he had a hand, do not relate 
to subjects in our history which need to be remem- 
bered, and the four years added little to his fame 
as a public man, as they unfortunately contributed 
nothing to his own peace and enjoyment. He was 
u abused and assailed without example," as he said 
in a speech in Cincinnati on August 23, 1828. He 
had presumed to speak of Jackson asa " military 
chieftain," which was the excuse for a personal 
statement by " Old Hickory," and the fury of the 
combat increased, with "bargain and corruption" 
always in the foreground. No denial would avail. 
"The charge like every lie," as Mr. Colton re- 
marks, 1 " would travel over the continent while 
truth was putting its boots on. 



i) i 



'Vol. V, p. 341. 

9 Now already Clay and his friends were collecting testimony 
to rebut the story of the " bargain," a movement for campaign 
purposes which in subsequent years reached much greater pro- 
portions. On the 14th of December, 1827, he wrote from Wash- 
ington to the wife of his friend, Benjamin Gratz, in Lexington, 
at whose home in 1824 he had made statements concerning his 
relation to the respective claims of Adams and Jackson. He 
said : 

"I received this morning your obliging letter of the 3d in 
stant on the subject of that which I had addressed to Mr. Gratz. 
1 have a distinct recollection of the occasion, at your house, on 
which the conversation stated by 3 r ou took place ; and lam per- 
fectly sure that your narrative of it is entirely accurate. I 
know not how to express, with sufficient warmth and gratitude, 
my very great obligations for your kindness in writing the letter 
and your generous permission to use it in my defense. Al- 
though I feel sensible that it would be of much benefit to me, 
and I should feel proud and honored by the exhibition of the 



SECRETARY OF STATE 159 

Mr. Clay's health, while he was Secretary of 
State, was at times so miserable that his life was 
despaired of. The nature of his malady was rather 
mysterious, but it was made much worse by the 
campaign of calumny he was compelled to pass 
through and led several times to his thinking very 
seriously of resignation. The issue was several 
times under discussion with the President. On 
February 18, 1828, Mr. Adams writes in his diary : 
"Mr. Clay was here complaining of the state of his 
health, which he says is so bad that nothing, except 
the existing state of things, could induce him to 
continue longer in the public service. He thinks 
his health is gradually sinking and his spirits are 
obviously giving way under the load of obloquy, 
scandal and persecution which has been heaped 
upon him as well as upon me." 1 

In April he again told the President that he must 



name of a fair witness, among the other respectable persons "who 
have testified to the same point, I cannot allow myself to use 
the privilege which you have given so kindly. I cannot con- 
sent to place your name in the public prints. Some rude and 
uncourteous editor or scribbler might say something to wound 
your feelings or my own on account of you. 

41 1 shall write to Mr. Blair [Francis P. Blair who was pres- 
ent on the occasion] and procure his statement which may su- 
persede the necessity of a public use of yours, which I shall 
nevertheless file carefully away and preserve among my most 
cherished documents. ... I have nothing new to com- 
municate to you from this place. Of politics everybody is 
heartily tired, tho' we learn that the ladies in Lexington 
are arrayed under opposite standards, and take a lively interest 
in behalf of their respective favorites. I hope that the unusually 
large number of your sex who have come here this winter with 
the members of Congress, their husbands and relatives, will 
contribute to calm the angry and excited passions, and to smooth 
and soften our ways. . . . " 

1 Memoirs, Vol. VII, p. 439. 



160 HEXKY CLAY 

resign. 1 "A relaxation from public duties was in- 
dispensable and he must go home and die or get 
better. His disorder, ' ' Adams continued, u is a 
general decay of the vital powers, a paralytic tor- 
pidity and numbness, which began at the lower ex- 
tremity of his left limb, and from the foot has grad- 
ually risen up the leg and now approaches the hip." 
One day Judge Southard called upon the President 
and said that Clay could scarcely be expected to 
live a month longer. Mr. Adams heard every sug- 
gestion of resignation with real pain and regret, 
being not at all disposed to go on with his adminis- 
tration without his Secretary of State. A doctor 
told the President that the trouble was nervous, not 
paralytic, and Clay continued to attend to his many 
duties with regularity, though he went to Philadel- 
phia for a time to consult with and live under the 
care of some of the eminent physicians in that city. 
He told Adams, however, that • l he had little hope 
of surviving, and had so made up his mind as to set 
little value upon life." 2 

His domestic afflictions bore heavily upon his 
spirit and its buoyancy might have been expected 
almost to desert him for reasons quite apart from 
his physical condition. In the space of a year or 
two he lost by death two of his daughters, including 
the beloved Mrs. Duralde of New Orleans. Indeed, 
but one now remained. A son was insane and 
another had misconducted himself so grievously as 
to cause his parents much pain. 3 For several weeks 

^Memoirs, Vol. VII, p. 517. 

* Ibid., p. 521; also Mrs. Smith, First Forty Years of Wash- 
ington .Society, pp. 256-257, 276. 
3 Mrs. Smith, p. 303. 



SECRETARY OF STATE 1G1 

he was wholly unable to sleep except by the use of 
anodynes, 1 yet at " drawing rooms" he still kept on 
" the mask of smiles " 2 with a bravery which greatly 
increased the admiration of his friends. Mrs. Smith 
wrote on February 16, 1829 : 

" I never liked Mr. Clay so well as I do this 
winter ; the coldness and hauteur of his manner have 
vanished, and a softness and tenderness and sadness 
characterize him (to me at least), for I know not 
how it is in general society — that is extremely at- 
taching and affecting — at the same time perfect good 
humor j no bitterness mingles its gall in the cup of 
disappointment." 3 

Mrs. Clay also was ill, and, while sharing her 
husband's domestic sorrows, at u the last drawing- 
room" of the Adams administration, "she re- 
ceived all with smiling politeness." Mr. Clay too 
concealed his feelings. He " looked gay and was 
so courteous and gracious and agreeable that ever}' 
one remarked it." He was determined, he said, 
that u we should regret him' when he had gone. 
" My heart filled to overflowing," Mrs. Smith con- 
tinues, "as I watched this acting, and to conceal tears 
which I could not repress, took a seat in a corner 
by the fire, behind a solid mass of people." There 
Mr. Clay sought her out and she spoke of her sad- 
ness on losing her friend, Mrs. Clay. "For a 
moment he held my hand, pressed in his, without 
speaking, his eyes filled with tears and with an 
effort he said : ' We must not think of this or talk 
of such things now,' and relinquishing my hand 

1 Mrs. Smith, pp. 277, 303. * lbid. t p. 259, 

3 Ibid., p. 276. 



162 HENRY CLAY 

drew out his handkerchief, turned away his head 
and wiped his eyes, then pushed into the crowd 
and talked and smiled as if his heart was light and 
easy. Alas, I knew, what perhaps no other among 
these hundreds knew, that anguish, heartrending- 
anguish, was concealed beneath that smiling, cheer- 
ful countenance, and that the animation and spirits 
which charmed an admiring circle were wholly arti- 
ficial." l 

Mr. Clay was not abandoned by his friends, but 
they seemed fewer. They were being overwhelmed 
in numbers by the Jacksonians who descended upon 
everything like the flies and locusts of Egypt, and 
with about as much benevolent purpose in the view 
of Adams, Clay and those who shared their opinions. 
There were dinners tendered to the Secretary of 
State by his admirers, as he went back and forth 
between Washington and Kentucky ; on such oc- 
casions, he was nearly always called upon to rebut 
aspersion and calumny directed against himself and 
the administration. At a public dinner in Frazer's 
Tavern at Lewisburg, Va., on August 30, 1826, 
Mr. Clay responded to the toast : 

" Our distinguished guest, Henry Clay — the states- 
man, orator, patriot and philanthropist ; his splen- 
did talents shed lustre on his native state, his elo- 
quence is an ornament to his country." 

He again roundly defended himself and Mr. 
Adams. " A spirit of denunciation is abroad," 
said he. "With some condemnation, right or 
wrong, is the order of the day. No matter what 
prudence and wisdom may stamp the measures of 

1 Mrs. Smith, p. 278. 



SECRETARY OF STATE 163 

the administration j no matter how much the pros- 
perity of the country may be advanced, or what 
public evils may be averted, under its guidance, 
there are persons who would make general, indis- 
criminate and interminable opposition." ! 

Even in Kentucky, where they had earlier been 
so faithful to their " Great Hal," influences were at 
work which swept the state for Jackson in 1828. 
Amos Kendall was leading a movement on the sub- 
ject of the " bargain," holding, as Adams called it, 
"a self- constituted court of inquisition" in the 
legislature. In Lexington on July 12, 1827, Clay 
responded to the toast : 

u Our distinguished guest, Henry Clay: the 
furnace of persecution m<xy be heated seven times 
hotter and seventy times more he will come out un- 
scathed by the fire of malignity, brighter to all and 
dearer to his friends ; while his enemies shall sink 
with the dross of their own vile materials.'' 

This toast drew forth a spirited and fervid speech. 
Jackson himself had now come out into the open, 
and had made himself the sponsor for the accusation. 
It demanded and received at Clay's hands complete 
denial, as it did again on August 23, 1828, at 
Cincinnati, through which city he passed on his way 
to Washington. 

The temptation to reply to Jackson in kind must 
have been great, but Mr. Clay maintained his 
dignity of utterance, and charged the general with 
nothing more than inexperience in civil pursuits 
and unfitness for the office which he strove to 
obtain. At Lexington, Mr. Clay said: "At this 

1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 325. 



164 HENRY CLAY 

early period of the rex^ublie, keeping steadily in 
view the dangers which had overturned every 
other free state, I believed it to be essential to 
the lasting preservation of our liberties, that a 
man devoid of civil talents, and offering no recom- 
mendation but one founded on military service, 
should not be selected to administer the government. 
I believe so yet j and I shall consider the days of 
the commonwealth numbered when an opposite 
princix3le is established. ... I have, as your 
representative, freely examined, and, in niy de- 
liberate judgment, justly condemned the conduct 
of General Jackson in some of our Indian wars. I 
believed, and yet believe him, to have trampled 
upou the Constitution of his country, and to have 
violated the principles of humanity. Entertaining 
these opinions, I did not and could not vote for him." * 
In Baltimore, on May 13, 1828, Mr. Clay made a 
speech upon the danger of a military spirit in a 
republic. In this address Jackson's name was not 
mentioned, but he called the Republican party away 
from its false gods, and appealed to it to return to 
its view "that liberty and the predominance of the 
military principle were utterly incompatible." 
" If indeed we have incurred the Divine displeasure 
and it be necessary to chastise this people with the 
rod of vengeance, I would humbly prostrate inyself 
before Him and implore His mercy to visit our 
favored land with war, with pestilence, with famine, 
with every scourge other than military rule, or a 
blind and heedless enthusiasm for mere military 



renown." 



Colton, Vol. V, p. 355. 



SECRETARY OF STATE 165 

These estimates of Jackson, although Clay was 
the leading victim of his unjust spleen, were mild 
in comparison with those which were expressed by 
others concerning the " chieftain" • for example, by 
Thomas Jefferson and President Adams. In 1824, 
the old seer of "Monticello" said to Daniel 
Webster: "I feel much alarmed at the prospect 
of seeing General Jackson President. He is one of 
the most unfit men I know of for such a place. He 
has had very little respect for laws or constitutions, 
though an able military chief. His passions are 
terrible. When I was President of the Senate he 
was a senator [during 1797 in Philadelphia, when 
Jefferson was Vice-President of the United States, 
and Jackson was for a short time a senator from the 
new state of Tennessee] and he could never speak 
on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have 
seen him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke 
with rage. His passions are no doubt cooler now, 
for he has been much tried since I knew him. But 
he is a dangerous man." ■ 

Adams wrote of Jackson in his diary in December, 
1827 : "He is incompetent both by his ignorance 
and by the fury of his passions. He will be sur- 
rounded and governed by incompetent men whose 
ascendency over him will be secured by their 
servility, and who will bring to the government 
nothing but their talent for intrigue." Adams 
predicted that they would soon "go to wreck and 
ruin," when there would come "the recoil of public 
opinion in favor of Mr. Clay." " If human nature 
has not changed its character," he continued, 

Bolton, Vol. V, p, 300. 



166 HENRY CLAY 

" Kentucky and the Union will then do justice to 
him and to his slanderers. ' ' ' 

In spite of these, as they would seem, insuperable 
objections to Jackson as President, his strength in- 
creased, and in the election of 1828 he was over- 
whelmingly the choice of the people. The " old 
hero 7 ' of New Orleans had been done out of his 
honors and dues in 1824, and he must have them 
now. He received 178 electoral votes against only 
83 for Adams, whose total was principally made up 
from the New England states, New York, New 
Jersey and Delaware. Not a single vote came to 
him from states south of the Potomac or west of the 
Alleghanies. It was a protest in the popular belief 
against an "extravagant, corrupt, aristocratic, 
Federalist administration," 2 as Jefferson's election 
had been a protest against the same things, as they 
were represented by the elder Adams. At Jack- 
son's inauguration in March, 1829, the ex-President 
must slink back to his home in much the same way 
as his father, the " Duke of Braintree." He was a 
monarchist, his sympathies were English and there 
was no place for him in the affections of a demo- 
cratic people. 

As the Adams administration drew to a close, and 
Jackson and his friend Eaton, with the notorious 
Peggy O'Neill, and others connected with the new 
government, came in to usurp the places which had 
been so acceptably and gracefully held in Washing- 
ton society by the representatives of old American 
families, it seemed to the people resident there little 
short of final catastrophe. They were looked upon 

1 Memoir*, Vol. VII, p. 383. 2 Sumner, Jackson, p. 118. 



SECEETAKY OF STATE 167 

as Goths and Vandals come down upon Rome. 
Farewells were said, homes broken up, friendly 
ties severed, perhaps forever. There was but ili- 
suppressed comment upon Mrs. Jackson and the 
pipe which she was believed to smoke ; upon the gay 
tavern -keeper's daughter who as a cabinet lady w r as 
to be a candidate for a place at diuner-tables, and 
upon other socially outre prospects. The general 
gloom is depicted in Mrs. Smith's interesting letters. 
Mrs. Clay, no less than Mr. Clay, was among the 
most beloved of Washington social figures, and the 
packing of their furniture and contemplated going 
was to their friends a most unhappy leave-taking. 
" What a change, what a change will there be in the 
city," exclaimed Mrs. Smith. " On no former oc- 
casion has there been anything like it." ! "Every 
one of the public men who will retire from office on 
the 4th of March will return to private life," she 
thought, "with blasted hopes, injured health, im- 
paired or ruined fortunes, embittered tempers and 
probably a total inability to enjoy the remnant of 
their lives." Never did she witness " such a gloomy 
time in Washington." "Every individual con- 
nected with the government from the highest to the 
lowest clerk " was filled with apprehension, and well 
might he be, for Jackson was to introduce the 
" spoils system," entirely new to our politics. Men 
were to be "proscribed" for their political views. 
"There is not at Cairo to Constantinople," said 
Clay, " a greater moral despotism than is at tins 
moment exercised in this city over public opinion. 
Why a man dare not avow what he thinks or feels, 

1 First Forty Years of Washington Society, p. 258. 



16S HEJS T EY CLAY 

or shake hands with a personal friend, if he hap- 
pens to differ from the powers that be." ' 

" The sun of my j)olitical life," said John Quincy 
Adams, "sets in the deepest gloom." Three days 
before the inauguration of his successor he was in 
somewhat better cheer. He went into retirement, 
he said, "with a combination of parties and of 
public men against my character and reputation, 
such as I believe never before was exhibited against 
any man since the Union existed" ; but, he con- 
tinued, " passion and ignorance, envy and jealousy 
will pass. The cause of the Union and of improve- 
ment will remain, and I have duties to it and to my 
country yet to discharge. ' ' 2 

The incoming did not call upon the outgoing 
President, it was said because of his fear of meeting 
the great Kentucky leader, while in the act of per- 
forming this courtesy. On March 12th, Clay, who 
had arranged to leave Washington a little before 
the President, said his farewells to the Adamses in 
a house to which they had removed. The next day 
he started for Lexington by way of Baltimore, see- 
ing on the journey north from his carriage in Penn- 
sylvania Avenue the ex-President, when "a last 
salutation " was exchanged. Mr. Adams remained, 
as he said, "a silent observer of passing events," 
and delayed his departure until June when it 
was effected, as was that of all the members of his 
administration, without expressions of official re- 
gret. Clay accepted the result with as much resigna- 
tion as possible. "The military principle has 

1 Mrs. Smith. First Forty Years, p. 30. 
9 Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 102. 



SECBETAKY OF STATE 169 

triumphed," he said, in a letter to Niles of the 
Register, l ' ' and triumphed in the person of one 
devoid of all the graces, elegances, and magnanimity 
of the accomplished men of the profession. ' ' 

Clay, after Jackson's election, had been offered a 
place on the Supreme Bench by President Adams, 
but the appointment was declined. 2 His friends in 
Washington banded together to give him a diuner 
on March 7th. In his speech on this occasion he 
abated nothing of his faith in regard to General 
Jackson. He bowed to the will of the people. l ' I 
may, nevertheless, be allowed to retain and express 
my own unchanged sentiments," he added, " even 
if they should "not be in perfect coincidence with 
theirs. ... I deprecated the election of the 
present President of the United States because I be- 
lieved he had neither the tender, the experience, 
nor the attainments requisite to discharge the com- 
plicated and arduous duties of Chief Magistrate. I 
deprecated it still more, because his elevation, I be- 
lieved, would be the result exclusively of admiration 
and gratitude for military service, without regard 
to indispensable civil qualifications. I can neither 
retract, nor modify any opinion which on these sub- 
jects I have at any time heretofore expressed. 
. . . It is remarkable that at this epoch, at the 
head of eight of the nine independent governments 
established in both Americas, military officers have 
been placed, or have placed themselves. . . . 
The thunders from the surrounding forts, and the 
acclamations of the assembled multitude on the 4th 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 213. 

2 Memoirs, Vol. VIII, p. 78. 



170 HENRY CLAY 

lold us what general was at the head of our affairs. 
It is true, and in this respect we are happier than 
some of the American states, that his election has 
not been brought about by military violence. The 
forms of the Constitution have yet remained invio- 
late.'' Clay was not without hope which he would 
express sincerely, but he said, " I make no pledges, 
no promises, no threats, and I must add I have no 
confidence." 

At the conclusion of his speech Jie requested per- 
mission to propose a toast : 

" Let us never despair of the American Repub- 
lic." 

The return home was accomplished only slowly. 
It was in the nature of a " triumphal journey." l 
Clay wrote to his friend, J. S. Johnston, from 
Wheeling, on April 1st: u My journey has been 
marked by every token of warm attachment and 
cordial demonstrations. I never experienced more 
testimonies of respect and confidence, nor more en- 
thusiasm. Dinners, suppers, balls, etc. I have 
had literally a free passage. Taverns, stages, toll- 
gates, have been thrown open to me free from all 
charge. Monarchs might be proud of the reception 
with which I have everywhere been honored." 2 

In Lexington three thousand sat down at Fowler's 
Garden, at a great barbecue, given in his honor, in 
true Kentucky fashion, on May 16, 1829. Long 
tables were spread under the trees and huge roasts 
of beef and saddles of mutton were served with the 
accompanying punch. The meat was cooked over 
coals in deep trenches, and the carving was done by 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 229. 8 Ibid. , p. 226. 



SECRETARY OF STATE 171 

young men who were very proud of their skill. 
This dinner was an opportunity for Mr. Clay to 
speak of the condition of the roads, always upon his 
mind. So deep was the mire, that it had taken 
nearly four days in April for him and his family to 
travel sixty- four miles over one of the most used 
highways in Kentucky. 

His coming was awaited with suggestions that he 
should be reelected to Congress from his old dis- 
trict, or that he should be given a seat in the state 
legislature. He said that he wished repose, both 
on account of his enfeebled health, and the condition 
of his private affairs : "Upon my return home," 
he continued, " I found my house out of repair, my 
farm not in order, the fences down, the stock poor, 
the crop not set and late in April the corn-stalks of 
the year's growth yet standing in the field." He 
desired " retirement, unqualified retirement from 
all public employment" ; and this he was now for 
a little while to enjoy. 






CHAPTER VIII 

NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 

If Henry Clay sincerely believed that be would 
enjoy the quiet life of his neglected farm for any 
great length of time after his experiences in larger 
fields, or that the people would permit him to end 
his career in retirement, he erred seriously. For a 
while he occupied himself busily, however, with 
affairs at " Ashland." The planting- season was at 
hand for corn, hemp and other crops profitable in 
the blue grass region of Kentucky. He purchased 
in Washington County, Pa., fifty fall-blooded 
Merino ewes, selected from one of the finest flocks 
in the country. They were driven to " Ashland" 
and put out to pasture. Other species of blooded 
stock were added to those already on the farm and 
with the help of Mrs. Clay, always intelligently de- 
voted to the dairy and allied interests, he soon 
brought into order the estate which had suffered so 
much during his long absences. He also took some 
legal cases and defended at considerable trouble to 
himself a young man named Wickliffe, accused of 
murder, whereby he increased his popularity in 
Kentucky, among classes of the people who had ex- 
changed his leadership for that of General Jackson. 
Indeed, Mr. Clay soon came to believe that the an- 
tagonism displayed in the election of 1828 was di- 
rected against Mr. Adams rather than himself. 1 

1 To Francis Brooke, Private Correspondence, p. 242. 






NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 173 

This impression seemed to be confirmed by a tour 
through the state, which was " full of gratification." 
He wrote his friend, J. S. Johnston : " Every sort 
of enthusiastic demonstration of friendship and at- 
tachment on the part of the people was made toward 
me. Barbecues, dinners, balls, etc., etc., without 
number." He thought that u the men and the 
women, too, would devour" him. He was obliged 
" to speak often and long." At Russell ville at least 
3,000 persons assembled, and an audience not smaller 
in size heard him at Hopkinsville. His addresses, 
he said, were " never better received by all parties, 
nor were they ever more satisfactory ' ' to Mr. Clay 
himself. At that moment he entertained "not a 
particle of doubt of there being ... a decided 
maj ority for me against all and every person what- 
ever." x 

Clay was now very clearly the leader of a new po- 
litical party. It had been in process of formation 
for many years. He and his followers were called 
" war- hawk s " during the War of 1812, then 
Young Republicans and now, arraying themselves 
against Jackson, they were to be National Republi- 
cans, or Whigs. They were not willing to grant 
that the Jackson men who took the name Demo- 
cratic were the legitimate heirs to the Jeffersonians, 
but on the constitutional question this becomes the 
verdict of history. One abiding hate, above all 
others, now filled Jackson's implacable mind, and it 
had for its particular object Henry Clay. Men 
were chosen for the cabinet, not for their statesman- 
like abilities, but because they could talk glibly of 

l Ibid., p. 244. 



174 HENRY CLAY 

the ' ' corrupt bargain. ' ' ' Postmasters and collect- 
ors were dismissed from office and replaced by 
Jackson men, because they had once been, and now 
still dared to be friends of Clay. He called it " pro- 
scription " and " moral despotism." It was noth- 
ing at all but that mischievous and offensive system 
which from this time on became firmly entrenched 
in our politics as the u spoils system." 

To Jackson it was not so much a recognition of 
any vulgar principle as a natural outgrowth of a 
distinctly military temperament. In war it was his 
policy to quell all opposition by whatever means. 
He carried this idea into politics and now, as here- 
after, to the end of his public career, it was his policy 
to meet every one who obstructed his pathway as 
though he were a public enemy — often, indeed, as 
though he were an outlaw, beyond the pale of the 
accepted rules of war. 

Jackson had taken care that the Secretary of State 
should be set out of his office upon the exact stroke 
of the clock, which announced the end of the Adams 
administration. Before his departure from Wash- 
ington, Clay had denounced the policy of dismissing 
faithful old government servants for political rea- 
sons, and he always condemned in unmeasured terms 
the administration of Jackson for this practice, so 
unheard of in American public life up to that time. 
In the excellent speech at the dinner teudered him 
by his friends in Lexington, on May 16, 1829, he 
continued his criticisms of the President by reason 
of this course. He declared it to be monarchical. 
4 ' The great difference between the two forms of 

l Schurz, Vol. I, p. 337. 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPKOMISE 175 

government [the monarchy and the republic]/' said 
he, " is that in a republic all power and authority, 
and all public offices and honors emanate from the 
people, and are exercised and held for their benefit. 
In a monarchy, all power and authority, all offices 
and honors proceed from the monarch. His inter- 
ests, his caprices and his passions influence and con- 
trol the destinies of the kingdom. In a republic 
the people are everything, and a particular individ- 
ual nothing. In a monarchy, the monarch is every- 
thing, and the people nothing." 

It had been objected to the late administration, 
by Jackson himself, that it had adopted and en- 
forced a system of proscription, yet " during the 
whole period of it," said Clay, " not a solitary of- 
ficer of the government from Maiue to Louisiana 
within my knowledge was dismissed on account of 
his political opinions. ' ' The six Presidents preced- 
ing Jackson, the first six in the republic's history, 
had in their forty years made only seventy-four re- 
movals, and practically all these removals were for 
good and sufficient cause. The " old hero" had 
already very far exceeded this total, for reasons that 
were wholly personal and partisan, and the entire 
civil service was in a state of disorganization, un- 
certainty and fear, knowing that more dismissals 
were in near prospect. In the first year of Jackson's 
administration the number of changes exceeded 
^OOO. 1 

The President's " tremendous power of dismis- 
sion," Clay continued at Lexington, was intended 
u to be exercised for the public good and not to 

^churz, Vol. I, p. 334. 



176 HimtY CLAY 

gratify any private passions or purposes." He 
preferred to remain silent when he did not approve 
the acts and measures of the administration, but 
he could not do so. "Hitherto," said he, "the 
uniform practice of the government has been, where 
charges are preferred against public officers, foreign 
or domestic, to transmit to them a copy of the 
charges for the purpose of refutation or explanation. 
This has been considered an equitable substitute to 
the more tedious and formal trials before judicial 
tribunals. But now persons are dismissed not only 
without trial of any sort, but without charge. And 
as if the intention were to defy public opinion, and 
to give to the acts of power a higher degree of enor- 
mity, in some instances, the persons dismissed have 
carried with them in their pockets the strongest 
testimonials to their ability and integrity, furnished 
by the very instruments employed to execute the pur- 
poses of oppression. . . . To be dismissed without 
fault and without trial ; to be expelled, with their 
families without the means of support and, in some 
instances, disqualified by age, or by official habits 
from the pursuit of any other business, and all this 
to be done upon the will of one man, in a free gov- 
ernment is surely intolerable oppression. . . . 
According to the principles now avowed and prac- 
ticed, all offices, vacant and filled, within the com- 
pass of the executive power, are to be allotted among 
the partisans of the successful candidate. . . . 
The consequence of these principles would be to 
convert the nation into one perpetual theatre for 
political gladiators. There would be one universal 
scramble for the public offices. . . . Congress 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPKOMISE 177 

corrupted and the press corrupted, general corrup- 
tion would ensue,- until the substance of free govern- 
ment having disappeared, some pretorian band 
would arise, and with the general concurrence of a 
distracted people put an end to useless forms." ' 

Clay felt very strongly upon this subject, and ex- 
pressed himself with an earnest eloquence worthy 
of exerting greater influence upon the people, whom 
the " military chieftain," however, seemed to have in 
his complete control, no matter how grave his offense 
against constitutional traditions. The opposition 
leader in his retreat at u Ashland " was in constant 
communication by correspondence with his friends, 
and he had the opportunity to continue his arraign- 
ment of Jackson's assaults upon the civil service 
while out on his speaking tours. 

After he had returned from his triumphal journey 
through the state, he projected a trip down the 
Mississippi. He left "Ashland" in the middle of 
January, going directly to New Orleans to visit the 
bereaved home of his daughter, Mrs. Duralde, who, 
it will be remembered, died while he was Secretary 
of State. He remained for a few weeks, making ex- 
cursions, hither and thither, to adjoining planta- 
tions. His reception was cordial. When he unex- 
pectedly attended the legislature, Speaker and all, 
without distinction of party, rose to receive him. 
He was invited to public dinners at Memphis, 
Vicksburg, Port Gibson, Natchez and Baton Eouge, 
but he declined all tendered entertainments except 
that at Natchez, which place he took on his way 
home in March. Upon leaving New Orleans for 
1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 375 et seq. 



178 HENRY CLAY 

Mississippi, an immense coneourse of people assem- 
bled to witness his departure. The banks of the 
levee, and the tops of steamboats and houses were 
completely covered by the cheering multitude. 
Cannon were fired, and banners and handkerchiefs 
were waved to bid him adieu. At Natchez a crowd 
pressed into the boat, almost weighing it down. At 
the dinner and ball with which he was honored, both 
parties u vied with each other in their testimonies 
of respect/' He was at home again before the first 
of April, certain of his early reinstatement in the 
public affections. "I have almost daily proofs of 
the general conviction which prevails of my having 
been wronged," he wrote from " Ashland " on April 
17, 1830, 1 "and I have full confidence that my 
fellow citizens will ultimately render me perfect 
justice. . . . Everywhere I was received with 
warmth and cordiality and in some instances with 
enthusiasm. When the passions, lately so strongly 
excited, shall subside, and the people come to re- 
flect on the past, and to reason upon the promises 
made by or for the successful presidential candi- 
date, and the shameful violation of all of them at 
Washington, they cannot fail to come to right con- 
clusions." 

In spite of all this he wrote a little later to his 
friend, Judge Brooke, that he felt himself u more 
and more weaned from public affairs. My attach- 
ment to rural life," lie continued, "every day ac- 
quires more strength, and if it continues to increase 
another year, as it has the last, T shall be fully pre- 
pared to renounce forever the strifes of public life. 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 259. 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 179 

My farm is in tine order, and my preparations for 
the crop of the present year are in advance of all 
my neighbors. I shall make a better farmer than 
statesman. And I find in the business of cultiva- 
tion, gardening, grazing and the rearing of the 
various descriptions of domestic animals the most 
agreeable resources." ' 

Though great pressure was exerted to induce him 
to visit the North in the summer of 1830, he thought 
that he would be able "to resist it." Indeed, he 
was " urgently solicited to go to almost every quar- 
ter of the Union." If he were to yield to these en- 
treaties he would be " perpetually traveling." 2 He 
did, however, heed a summons to Ohio, speaking in 
Cincinnati and other cities to vast assemblages of 
people on the questions of the hour. He could not 
have any but an interest, close and continuous, in 
the course of public events, and the approach of 
another presidential election gave him and his 
friends the deepest concern. 

The issue which was now very prominently to en- 
gage attention was the tariff. Of this Henry Clay 
was everywhere known to be the especial champion. 
He was one of the authors and principal advocates 
of the laws of 1816 and 1824. He had coined the 
phrase, the u American system," as applied to the 
protective policy. He was not unmindful of the 
course of affairs in reference to the Tariff of 1828, 
passed while he was Secretary of State, and he was 
first and foremost in his denunciation of the spirit 
of nullification and disunion with which South 
Carolina greeted this measure. The South had 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 261. 3 Ibid., p. 271. 



180 HENRY CLAY 

aided in enacting the tariff law of 1816, Calhoun 
himself standing shoulder to shoulder with Clay in 
order to secure its success. When it was a question 
of raising the duties in 1824, there had been no 
violent opposition from the South, though the legis- 
lature of South Carolina had passed a joiut resolu- 
tion, declaring it an unconstitutional exercise of 
Federal power. Under the latter measure mauy 
new manufactories were established, and wherever 
these secured a foothold, they spread the love of 
protection, until, in 1828, we find Webster and the 
New Englanders, who four years before had most ve- 
hemently opposed the policy, its warm advocates. 
The woolen manufacturers seemed to lead in the de- 
mand for a further increase of duties, in order to 
make it still more inconvenient for the British 
weavers to sell their fabrics in America. Already 
in 1826 there was a loud cry for a raising of the 
wall. Business was said to be in a state of depres- 
sion from which nothing could rescue it but govern- 
mental aid. Congress would have passed a bill in 
1827, except for the casting vote in the Senate of 
Vice-President Calhoun, who had now come to the 
conclusion that protection was not only inexpedient 
but also unconstitutional. It was certain that the 
bill would be revived in the following year. 

The South began to raise its voice in a threat- 
ening way. The "Woolens Bill," as it was called, 
was adjudged to be an insult to the American 
people. 1 Remonstrances were framed and adopted 
in public meetings and sent to Congress, but the 
wool -growers and woolen manufacturers of the North 
1 McMaster, Vol. V, p. 243 et seq. 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 181 

were not to be turned aside. They too held meet- 
ings and the issue was joined between two geo- 
graphical sections of the Union of radically different 
economic interests. 1 

Jackson earlier had been regarded as a protec- 
tionist. Some of his declarations seemed to mark 
him as the advocate of at least a moderate tariff. 
He now wavered a little, but he took no very active 
part in forwarding the interests of either party. 
The discussion rapidly gained in bitterness. Peti- 
tions and memorials, remonstrances and protests 
poured into Congress, but in January, 1828, the 
committee was ready with the bill, though it seems 
to have been generally thought that it would not 
pass. Indeed, there was a secret understanding 
to this end, but the agreement was broken and the 
bill became a law. Its provisions pleased no one. 
They were purposely made odious and it was at 
once dubbed "the tariff of abominations," or 
" black tariff." 2 The rumblings in South Carolina 
now became an ominous roar. The nullification 
sentiment there, with some support from neighbor- 
ing states, assumed a definite form, and definite ex- 
pression of it reached the nation through Calhoun 
in his famous "Exposition of 1828." 3 

Clay had entered the discussion in the speech de- 
livered at Cincinnati, on August 23, 1828, on his 
way back to Washington, after a few weeks* visit 
to " Ashland." He defended the new tariff law as 
"but the consequences of the policy " earlier begun 
in reference to the establishment of the " American 

1 See Hunt, Calhoun. 2 MoMaster, Vol. V, p. 255. 

3 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 255 et seq. ; Huiit, Calhoun, p. 71 et scy. 



182 HENRY CLAY 

system." The sole object now was "the improve- 
ment and perfection of the great work." It was to 
Calhoun that he directly alluded when he said : 
"It is not the least remarkable of the circumstances 
of these strange times that some who assisted in the 
commencement, who laid corner-stones of the 
edifice, are now ready to pull down and demolish 
it." 

As to the policy of South Carolina, he said : "It 
amounts to this : that whenever any portion of the 
community finds itself in a minority in reference to 
any important act of the government, and by high 
coloring and pictures of imaginary distress can 
persuade itself that the measure is oppressive, that 
minority may appeal to arms, and, if it can, dis- 
solve the Union. Such a principle would reverse 
the established maxim of representative government, 
according to which the will of the majority must 
prevail. If it were possible that the minority could 
govern and control, the Union may indeed as well 
be dissolved ; for it would not then be worth pre- 
serving. The conduct of an individual could not 
be more unwise and suicidal who, because of some 
trifling disease affecting his person, should, in a 
feverish and fretful moment, resolve to terminate 
his existence." 

But he did not believe that there was reason to 
apprehend "the execution of these empty threats. 
The good sense, the patriotism, and the high char- 
acter of the people of South Carolina are sure guar- 
antees for repressing without aid any disorders, 
should any be attempted within her limits. The 
spirit of Marion and Pickens and Sumter, of the 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPEOMISE 183 

Rutledges, the Pinckneys and of Lowndes yet 
survives and animates the high-minded Carolinians. 
The, Taylors and the Williarnses, and their com- 
patriots of the present day will be able to render a 
just account of all, if there be any who shall dare to 
raise their parricidal hands against the peace, the 
Constitution and the Union of the states. Rebuked 
by public opinion — a sufficient corrective — and 
condemned by their own sober reflections, the 
treasonable purpose will be relinquished, if it were 
ever seriously contemplated by any." 1 

These were the ringing words of a man who never 
cherished a sentiment which was unfaithful to the 
Union, and he would need to rerjeat them many 
times before he should reach the end of his public 
career. He had adverted to the subject in his 
speeches in the South. At Natchez, on March 13, 
1830, he aimed to reconcile the people of Mississippi 
and the South to the protective system, and to calm 
the fears of those who saw in prospect a dissolution 
of the Union. Rumors of the separation of the 
states, he said, had gone abroad ever since the 
establishment of the government. The West, the 
North and East, the South, were, in turn, charged 
with designs of this character. It was his belief 
that such apprehension arose from " our fears 
rather than from any substantial reasons to justify 
them." 2 

In Cincinnati again on August 3, 1830, he alluded 
to the attitude of South Carolina, and, at greater 
length than ever before, discussed the doctrines of 
nullification. The speech followed the Webster- 

1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 360 et seq. 2 Ibid., pp. 389-390, 



184 HENRY CLAY 

Hayne debates by a few mouths and was Clay's 
contribution to that controversy. He could hope to 
add nothing to what Webster had said. The doc- 
trine had been "examined and refuted with an 
ability and eloquence which had never been sur- 
passed on the floor of Congress. " So far from being 
oppressed, he asserted that South Carolina had 
always had "a larger proportion of power and in- 
fluence at home and abroad than any state in the 
whole Union in comparison with the poi3ulation." 
She had the presiding officer of the Senate who 
might, in a contingency, become President. She 
had a citizen on the Supreme Bench, and "until 
within a few months she had nearly one-third of all 
the missions of the first grade from this to foreign 
countries." He charged the South Carolina " poli- 
ticians" with not looking "beyond the simple act 
of nullification," with not seeing that one of the 
inevitable consequences of their course would be 
" to light up a civil war." He called the claim of 
right on the part of a state to nullify a Federal law 
an "enormous pretension." "Under the South 
Carolina doctrine, if established, the consequence 
would be a dissolution of the Union, immediate, 
inevitable, irresistible. There would be twenty - 
four chances to one against its continued exist- 
ence." 

' * Those who are opposed to the supremacy of the 
Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States," 
he said, "are adverse to all union, whatever con- 
trary professions they may make. For it may be 
truly affirmed that no confederacy of states can ex- 
ist without a power, somewhere residing in the 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 185 

government of that confederacy, to determine the 
extent of the authority granted by it to the confed- 
erating states." There was no middle ground be- 
tween nullification and secession for Mr. Clay, al- 
though he hinted at the expediency of suffering auy 
state, so bold as to try her rash experiment, to go 
her way in peace. He said : 

" If the unhappy case should ever occur of a state 
beiug really desirous to separate itself from the 
Union, it would present two questions. The first 
would be whether it had a right to withdraw with- 
out the common consent of the members ; and sup- 
posing, as I believe, no such right to exist, whether 
it would be expedient to yield consent. Although 
there may be power to prevent a secession, it might 
be deemed politic to allow it. It might be consid- 
ered expedient to permit the refractory state to take 
the portion of goods that falleth to her, to suffer her 
to gather her all together, and to go off with her 
living. But if a state should be willing and allowed 
thus to depart, and to renounce her future portion 
of the inheritance of this great, glorious and pros- 
perous republic, she would speedily return, and in 
language of repentance say to the other members 
of this Union, ' Brethren, I have sinned against 
Heaven, and before thee.' Whether they would 
kill the fatted calf, and chiding any complaining 
member of the family say, 'This, thy sister, was 
dead and is alive again ; and was lost and is found,' 
I sincerely pray the historian may never have oc- 
casion to record." 

It was not conceivable that a man to whom every 
person and every circumstance pointed as the anti- 



186 HENRY CLAY 

Jackson leader,. and also the auti-Calhoun leader, 
the father of the famous " American system," which 
was bringing upon the country critical sectional dis- 
affection, should be permitted to remain longer upon 
a farm in Kentucky. Clearly in 1832 he would be 
the candidate for the presidency of those elements 
in the electorate who could not endorse Andrew 
Jackson, and he himself believed that the number 
was growing larger daily. The attention bestowed 
upon him wherever he went attested to his great 
popularity. He swayed the enormous audiences 
which gathered to hear him with his magnificent 
oratory. The people seemed to bend responsive to 
his will, and he may be excused, if under such evi- 
dences he somewhat erred in judging the temper of 
the country, and, as it would appear, proofs of the 
strength of his hold upon their affections. The 
judgment was right as to a really important per- 
centage of the people ; he erred only in thinking 
that they were numerous enough to outweigh the 
Jackson hosts in a popular election. 

At Cincinnati in the summer of 1830 he said : 
" I am now a private man, the humblest of the 
humble, possessed of no office, no power, no patron- 
age, no subsidized press, no post-office department 
to distribute its effusions, no army, no navy, no 
official corps to chant my praises and to drink in 
flowing bowls my health and prosperity. I have 
nothing but the warm affections of a portion of the 
people, and a fair reputation, the only inheritance 
derived from my father, and almost the only inherit- 
ance which I am desirous of transmitting to my 
children." 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 187 

In the winter of 1830-1831 Mi". Clay made another 
visit to New Orleans, and upon his return was occu- 
pied with the settlement of several estates of which 
he was the executor. The summer of 1831 was sig- 
nalized by a contest over the election of a legislature 
which would choose a United States senator, and 
from all sides Clay was urged to be a candidate. 
He did not publicly say that he would be, but it 
was rather well understood that an an ti- Jackson 
victory would lead to this result. ' ' If we fail, ' ' Clay 
wrote his friend, J. S. Johnston, late in July, " it 
will be because the power of corruption is superior 
to the power of truth." " Prodigious efforts, 
seconded by a vast expenditure of money, are mak- 
ing from Washington," he said, but a victory was 
achieved. Kentucky, which two years before had 
been swept clean by the Jackson men, now pre- 
sented a satisfactory, though by no means large 
majority against him. From all directions Mr. 
Clay received requests that he should take a place 
in the Senate. Daniel Webster and many represent- 
atives of the old Federalist and Adams element in 
New England, now his devoted friends, warmly 
urged him to go to Washington. In October, he 
wrote to Judge Brooke that he was still considering 
whether he could subdue his "repugnance to the 
service." Webster was most emphatic in his wish 
that Clay would join him at the capital. They were 
confronted by "an interesting and an arduous ses- 
siou." " Everything," he said, " is to be attacked. 
. . . Not only the tariff, but the Constitution it- 
self in its elementary and fundamental provisions 
will be assailed with talent, vigor and union. 



188 HENRY CLAY 

Everything is to be debated, as if nothing had ever 
been settled. ... It would be an infinite grati- 
fication to have your aid, or rather your lead. 
. . . Everything valuable iu the government is 
to -be fought for, and we need your arm in the 
fight." 1 

The auti- Jackson majority in the legislature was 
not large, but it sufficed. Mr. Clay's principal com- 
petitor for the place was John J. Crittenden, who at 
once retired from the contest. Their relations on 
this occasion were entirely cordial, 2 and remained 
so. Crittenden was one of Clay's firmest friends and 
had been "proscribed" by Jackson on this ac- 
count. Through Clay's influence he had been ap- 
pointed District- Attorney of the United States for 
Kentucky by President Adams, and had been re- 
moved by Jackson. He had been nominated for a 
vacant place on the Supreme Bench after Clay had 
declined it, but the Senate, under the Jackson influ- 
ence, had refused to confirm the appointment. 3 
Crittenden had stumped the state with Clay against 
Jackson and, deserving as he was of advancement, 
he was without a thought of standing in the way of 
the best interests of his chief or of his party. The 

1 Col ton, Private Correspondence, p. 318. 

2 Life of Crittenden, edited by his daughter, Vol. I, p. 81. 

3 The citizens of Logan County. Kentucky, desirous of ten- 
dering a " public entertainment " to Crittenden in the summer 
of 1829, wrote him a letter in which the following passages 
occur : "A new standard is introduced to decide qualifications 
for office. The question is not now as in the days of the Re- 
publican Jefferson, ' Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Is he faith- 
ful ? ' No, the only questions now propounded are. ' Is he a 
true Swiss ? Did he vote against my competitor ? Has he 
fought for me ? Has he echoed my slanders against Henry 
Clay ? ' "—Life of Crittenden, Vol. I, p. 76. 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 189 

Jackson candidate was Colonel Richard M. John- 
sou, who was credited with having killed Tecumseh 
at the battle of the Thames. He had held a seat in 
the Senate from 1819 until 1829, and it was now de- 
sired by his friends that he should return to the 
place. The vote which was taken on November 10, 
1831, was seventy-three for Henry Clay and sixty- 
four for Colonel Johnson. 

Mr. Clay went to Washington in time for the 
opening of Congress in December, 1831, after an 
absence of two and a half years. He was the avowed 
candidate of his party for the presidency, at the 
election to be held in the following year. He fully 
knew the political hazard involved in his active 
entry into congressional debate, but in this national 
emergency he felt it a duty to heed the advice of his 
friends, aud give freely of what he was possessed for 
the public welfare. His coming was a welcome 
event to them, and he lost no time in taking bold 
positions upon the great questions brought forward 
by the Jackson administration, and by the threaten- 
ing course of South Carolina. It was always Clay's 
personal misfortune, as a presidential candidate, to 
hold positive opinions which he never hesitated 
to express. They were uttered courageously, some- 
times perhaps too heartily and impulsively. He 
did not shirk a duty when it confronted him, and 
though he pass down to posterity as the great paci- 
ficator and the great compromiser, there was little 
enough of this quality in his own personal character. 
He had nothing to surrender at times when merely 
to have been silent might have profited him much. 

Clay had scarcely arrived in Washington to begin 



190 HENKY CLAY 

his term as a United States senator, when he was 
formally nominated as the candidate for President 
of those who were 1 1 opposed to the reelection of 
Andrew Jackson." The custom of naming presi- 
dential candidates in conventions was now becoming 
established, and about 160 representatives from 
seventeen states and the District of Columbia 
(eighteen after one delegate had come from Ten- 
nessee) appeared in Baltimore on December 12, 
1831, for the purpose of presenting to the nation the 
name of Henry Clay. Indeed, all the states were 
represented, except South Carolina and some in the 
extreme South and West. James Barbour of Vir- 
ginia who had been Governor of his state, United 
States Senator, Secretary of War and Minister to 
England, was made the permanent chairman of the 
convention, and early in the proceedings a letter 
from Henry Clay was read. Not unmindful of the 
fact that his name was prominently mentioned as 
the choice of the delegates, he desired it to be un- 
derstood that if any other candidate were selected, 
their action would have his u hearty acquiescence 
and concurrence." He had a wish to lay these 
sentiments before the convention in person, but he 
had resorted instead to a letter, since it had appeared 
to him that he could not do so " without incurring 
the imputation of presumptuousness, or indelicacy." 
Immediately after the letter had been read, Mr. 
Clay was nominated by Peter R. Livingston of New 
York, and seconded by General Dearborn of Mas- 
sachusetts. As each delegate's name was called by 
the secretary, he rose in his place to express his 
preference for a candidate. All named Henry Clay 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 191 

aud he became the choice of the convention amid 
"loud and reiterated plaudits." John Sergeant, a 
prominent member of the Philadelphia bar, who 
had served several terms in Congress, notably dur- 
ing the Missouri debates, and had led the Panama 
Mission while Clay was Secretary of State, was nom- 
inated for Vice-President. A committee consisting 
of one member from each state was appointed to 
inform the candidate of the action of the convention, 
and five of the number at once went to Washing- 
ton to notify Mr. Clay of what had been done. 
They returned in a few hours bearing a letter from 
him. 

" With my respectful and cordial acknowledg- 
ments,' 7 said he, "you will be pleased to communi- 
cate to the convention my acceptance of their nom- 
ination with the assurance that whatever may be the 
event of it, our common country shall ever find me 
faithful to the Union and the Constitution, to the 
principles of public liberty, and to those great meas- 
ures of national policy which have made us a peo- 
ple, prosperous, respected and powerful." x After 
marching in a procession to the mansion of Charles 
Carroll, of Carrollton, to pay their respects to that 
venerable Revolutionary patriot, now more than 
ninety- four years of age, the delegates returned to 
their homes, and Henry Clay was officially a candi- 
date before the country for the presidential chair, 
against Jackson, whom his friends were determined 
to favor with a second term. 

The first subject to engage Mr. Clay's attention in 
the Senate was the " American system," but he was 

1 Mies' Register for 1831-1832, p. 301 et seq. 



192 HENRY CLAY 

not long in identifying himself with the other great 
issue of the campaign, the national bank. His 
popular support largely came from the manufactur- 
ing states, and it was perfectly well understood that 
if the " black tariff" were changed with his ap- 
proval and consent, it would be not far in the direc- 
tion of any sacrifice of its protective features. 
While South Carolina's protests were determined, 
there were few to believe that she meant violent ac- 
tion. It was plain, however, that the public debt 
was being rapidly paid off ; that the revenue must 
be reduced, if a large surplus were not to be accu- 
mulated ; and that these circumstances would soon 
become powerful motives with Jackson and his party, 
so desirous of strengthening itself in the affections 
of the democratic masses, for making an end to the 
protective system which Clay had done so much to 
establish. 

The leader did not spare himself in the contest 
which soon opened. He held a meeting of the 
friends of protection, drawn from both houses of 
Congress, and determined upon a course of action 
for them which John Quincy Adams, — returned in 
his diary to his splenetic judgments of Clay as of 
other men, — regarded as u exceedingly peremptory 
and dogmatic." Mr. Adams now appeared in the 
House, " turned boy again "as Clay happily said, 
and they met for the first time since their memorable 
years together as President and Secretary of State. 
The plan was to reduce the revenue by taking the 
duties from tea, coffee, spices, indigo, wines and 
other articles not produced in America, a policy 
which, therefore, would leave undisturbed the up- 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 193 

rising native industries. Mr. Adams as well as Ed- 
ward Everett, at whose home the meeting was held, 
believed that some of Mr. Clay' s suggestions would 
be a defiance not only to the South but also to the 
President. Clay said, however, that " he did not 
care who it defied. To preserve, maintain and 
strengthen the ' American system/ he would defy 
the South, the President and the devil." The meet- 
ing, Mr. Adams continues, " with the exception of 
myself was as obsequious as he was super- presiden- 
tial." 2 

Mr. Clay very shortly introduced into the Senate a 
resolution expressive of his views, as he had voiced 
them at this meeting. He spoke with all his accus- 
tomed spirit of eloquence, first on January 11, 1832, 
and then, more extensively and with really impress- 
ive ability, on February 2d, 3d and 6th in dis- 
courses which, taken together, formed, as Schurz 
truly says, a text-book for protectionists for many 
years. 

In his view of the case, Mr. Clay's " American 
system ' ' had brought its own full justification. " If 
I were to select any term of seven years since the 
adoption of the present Constitution, which exhib- 
ited a scene of the most wide-spread dismay and des- 
olation," he said, " it would be exactly that term of 
seven years which immediately preceded the estab- 
lishment of the Tariff of 1824." " If a term of seven 
years were to be selected of the greatest prosperity 
which this people have enjoyed since the establish- 
ment of their present Constitution," he continued, 
"it would be exactly that period of seven years 

1 Memoirs, Vol. VIII, p. 445 el seq. 



194 HENEY CLAY 

which immediately followed the passage of the 
Tariff of 1824.' > 

In the course of his speech, upon a subject which 
it is never easy to make entertaining, there were 
some signs of lagging interest. To this Clay was not 
accustomed and he instantly regained attention by 
a clever allusion to the Vice-President. Calhoun, 
with sombre, sphinx-like countenance, his meta- 
physical theories of government coursing through 
his mind, was the presiding officer. Clay suddenly 
adverted to the South Carolinian's recent address to 
the people of the United States. In this he did not 
say that he himself believed a protective tariff to be 
unconstitutional ; he asserted only that such an 
opinion was held by others. It must be inferred 
then that the author of the address was of another 
view. Mr. Calhoun immediately aroused, and said 
that, if the senator from Kentucky alluded to him, 
he would state that he believed the protective policy 
to be unconstitutional. This was Mr. Clay's oppor- 
tunity and he continued : " When, sir, I contended 
with you side by side, and with perhaps less zeal 
than you exhibited in 1816, I did not understand 
you then to consider the policy forbidden by the 
Constitution." 

To this the Vice-President retorted that the con- 
stitutional question at the time was not under dis- 
cussion, and that he had never expressed any opinion 
different from the one he now entertained. " It is 
true the question was not debated in 1816," an- 
swered Clay, "and why not? Because it was not 
debatable ; it was then believed not fairly to arise. 
• . . What was not dreamed of before, or in 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 195 

1816, and scarcely thought of in 1824, is now made 
by excited imaginations to assume the imposing 
form of a serious constitutional barrier." ] 

The interest of the Senate was immediately re- 
gained by this spirited interchange, and the discus- 
sion proceeded with many allusions to the "honor- 
able gentleman from South Carolina" which kept 
every one in a pleasant condition of amusement and 
expectancy. From Calhoun Clay passed to Albert 
Gallatin who had lately attacked the "American 
system," "a man," said Clay very angrily, "al- 
though long a resident of this country," with "no 
feelings, no attachments, no sympathies, no princi- 
|jles, in common with our people." Fifty years be- 
fore Pennsylvania "took him to her bosom, and 
warmed, and cherished, and honored him." How 
had he manifested his gratitude? "By aiming a 
vital blow at a system endeared to her by a thorough 
conviction that it is indispensable to her prosper- 
ity. ' ' There was no such thing as free trade. " The 
call for it," said he, " is as unavailing as the cry of 
a spoiled child in its nurse's arms for the moon or 
the stars that glitter in the firmament of Heaven." 
Trade could not be free unless the foreign country, 
as well as this country, would agree to make it so. 
What was called free trade was merely the " British 
colonial system." This it was which the United 
States was invited to adopt. 

From time to time General Hayne interposed a 
remark in behalf of South Carolina. In response to 
one of these interjections Mr. Clay said : 

"With respect to this Union, Mr. President, the 
'Col tern, Vol. V, pp. 447-448. 



196 HESTBY CLAY 

truth cannot be too generally proclaimed, nor too 
thoroughly inculcated that it is necessary to the 
whole and to all the parts — necessary to those parts, 
indeed in different degrees, but vitally necessary to 
each — and that threats to disturb or dissolve it 
among any of the parts would be quite as indiscreet 
and improper as would be threats from the residue 
to exclude those parts from the pale of its benefits. 
The great principle which lies at the foundation of 
all free governments is that the majority must gov- 
ern ; from which there is or can be no appeal but 
to the sword. The majority ought to govern wisely, 
equitably, moderately and constitutionally, but gov- 
ern it must, subject only to that terrible appeal. If 
ever one, or several states, being a minority can, by 
menacing a dissolution of the Union, succeed in 
forcing an abandonment of great measures deemed 
essential to the interests and prosperity of the whole, 
the Union from that moment is practically gone. It 
may linger on in form and name, but its vital spirit 
has fled forever." 

He again appealed to the spirit of Marion, Sumter 
and Pickens and asked the people " to pause, sol- 
emnly pause and contemplate the frightful precipice 
which lies directlv before them." " To retreat," he 
continued, u may be painful and mortifying to their 
gallantry and pride, but it is to retreat to the Union, 
to safety, and to those brethren wirh whom, or with 
whose ancestors, they, or their ancestors, have won 
on fields of glory imperishable renown. To advance 
is to rush on certain and inevitable disgrace and 
destruction." 

Danger to the Union did not lie "on the side of 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPEOMISE 197 

persistence in the American system, but on that of 
its abandonment. What," he asked, "would the 
Uuion be without Pennsylvania and New York, 
those mammoth members of our confederacy f ' ' Let 
it be supposed that they, "firmly persuaded that 
their industry was paralyzed and their prosperity 
blighted by the enforcement of the British colonial 
system, under the delusive name of free trade," 
were to question the authority of the Union. In 
concluding Mr. Clay said to the South Carolinians : 
"However strong their convictions may be, they 
are not stronger than ours. Between the points of 
the preservation of the system and its absolute re- 
peal, there is no principle of union." 

If a particular provision operated immoderately 
upon any quarter, he would assist in its modifi- 
cation, but he left little room for Calhoun or Hayne 
to hope for favor at the hands of him, or his protec- 
tionist allies. The Senate passed his resolution and 
in June, 1832, a bill expressive of his views, known 
as the Tariff of 1832, was enacted by Congress. But 
the reduction of the duties on articles, mostly lux- 
uries, not produced in the United States was so 
slight, that it did not materially affect the surplus, 
while South Carolina's anger grew apace. 

Upon other public questions of vital importance 
in giving direction to the presidential campaign. 
Senator Clay, as the opposition candidate, was 
listened to with similar attention. His words trav- 
eled the length and breadth of the land. He aided 
in rejecting Jackson's nomination of Martin Van 
Buren to be Minister to England. He led the con- 
test with honest delight. Mr. Clay made his ob- 



198 HENRY CLAY 

jections rest principally upun the fact that the 
President had already sent Mr. Van Buren abroad, 
taking for granted the Senate's consent ; and upon 
Van Buren' s action while Secretary of State in es- 
pousing, as Clay believed, the British side on a sub- 
ject left open by the preceding Secretary of State, 
no other than Mr. Clay himself. This change of 
policy had been explained, tactlessly enough, on 
the ground that, in the election of 1828, the people 
of the United States had rebuked the political party 
from which the proposal had come. This was an 
excellent opportunity to avenge an attack so per- 
sonal and how any one could have anticipated that 
Van Buren' s name would slip through the Senate 
with Clay upon the scene passes competent under- 
standing. It was an opportunity, too, for an at- 
tack upon Jackson for his system of proscribing his 
enemies, and of making the government a partisan 
political machine. Indeed, it was Clay's speech on 
the Van Buren nomination which directly led to 
Marcy's frank, and since famous declaration that 
" to the victors belong the spoils." In ascribing 
blame to Van Buren for this policy Mr. Clay said : 
"It is a detestable system drawn from the worst 
period of the Roman republic, and if it were to be 
perpetuated — if the offices, honors and dignities of 
the people are to be put up to a scramble, and to be 
decided by the results of every presidential election, 
our government and institutions becoming intoler- 
able, would finally end in a despotism as inexorable 
as that at Constantinople." 

Van Buren' s name called for a very close trial of 
party strength, and it was rejected only by Cal- 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 199 

houu's casting vote. The South Carolinian found 
as much satisfaction in his course, as did Mr. Clay, 
for the Van Buren faction in order to get Calhoun 
out of the way had brought to the ' l old hero's" at- 
tention an interesting fact which seemed earlier to 
have escaped him. While Clay was abusing Jack- 
son in the open House for his conduct during tbe 
Indian war in Florida, Calhoun, as Secretary of War 
in Monroe's cabinet, was making an effort in another 
direction to have the general punished for his high- 
handed proceedings. Knowledge of this immedi- 
ately caused Jackson to regard as an enemy one who 
had heretofore seemed to be a friend, and Calhoun 
no less than Clay, though on very different ground, 
found great pleasure in an act which they ' believed 
would serve to make an end to Jackson's principal 
favorite. They yet knew little of the " hero's" re- 
vengeful spirit, or of his great personal power. 
This " creature," as Van Buren seemed and really 
was, soon became Vice-President and then Presi- 
dent of the United States, solely because it was 
Jackson's desire so to reward a faithful retainer. 

The national bank, it will be remembered, bad 
been chartered largely through Clay's influence after 
the War of 1812. It had done its part well, and 
when its twenty years' lease of life should expire in 
1836, it was assumed that another would be given. 
Unhappily for it and its friends, the bank, or some 
of its branches, was adjudged by Jackson to be 
operated in antagonism to his political plans, and 
in his first message to Congress in December, 1829, 
he threatened to close the institution. His hostility 

1 Hunt, Calhoun, pp. 112-113. 



200 HENBY CLAY 

grew with each annual message, creating a very 
anxious feeling in financial circles. There was no 
imminent need of pressing the issue in 1831, but 
Clay had a wish to bring the matter before the coun- 
try, certain that Jackson would be much injured in 
the presidential contest, if Congress passed the bill 
renewing the charter, and the President should veto 
it. Both houses, therefore, proceeded to a discus- 
sion of the question and, having passed the measure 
extending the bank's powers by comfortable ma- 
jorities, sent it to the President, who promptly took 
the dare and returned the bill with his disapproval. 
The veto message came on July 10, 1832. It was 
a stump speech of the kind calculated to win great 
applause among those classes of the people who fol- 
lowed Jackson with such implicit confidence. The 
bank was a monopoly which, if popular liberty were 
to continue, must be destroyed. The orators in the 
Senate, Clay and Webster at their head, at once 
seized upon the message as the text for long and 
able speeches. The summer was wearing on and 
discussion seemed to gain in acrimony with the 
weather. Benton, having made himself the spokes- 
man of Jackson, was in the very centre of the melSe. 
His kinship with Mrs. Clay did not moderate the 
language which one leader employed in reference to 
the other, and amid wild scenes the President's veto 
was sustained. The vote was twenty -two to nineteen, 
it being practically assured from the beginning that 
the necessary two-thirds majority could not be ob- 
tained. It was, nevertheless, a political issue of 
which Clay felt very proud, as he did also of his 
position on the subject of the public lands. 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 201 

Now that the public debt was being extinguished 
and there was to be no more need of large Federal 
revenues, au Arcadian belief arose that the national 
domain should be partitioned among the states. 
Clay had come out boldly, though perhaps not quite 
willingly, since the expression of his views at this 
time was forced upon him by his enemies, in favor 
of a policy which he advocated with energy and 
ability for many years. Jackson wished Congress 
to cede and surrender the public lands at nominal 
prices to the states in which they were situated. 
This was a sop to the new states, and took no ac- 
count of the sacrifices which had been made by the 
older portions of the Union in the acquisition of the 
public domain. Clay, on the other hand, desired 
the Federal government to keep control of the lands, 
and sell them gradually, giving the proceeds to all 
the states according to their population, to be ap- 
plied to educational purposes, and the promotion of 
internal improvements. " What especially would 
be the situation of Virginia?" Clay asked in the 
Senate as he reviewed the proposal of his opponents. 
" She magnanimously ceded an empire in extent for 
the common benefit. And now it is proposed not 
only to withdraw that empire from the object of its 
solemn dictation to the use of all the states, but to 
deny her any participation in it and appropriate it 
exclusively to the benefit of the new states carved 
out of it," 

Mr. Clay reached heights of eloquence on this 
subject. "The right of the Union to the public 
lands," he said, " is incontestable. It ought not to 
be considered debatable. It never was questioned 



202 HENRY CLAY 

but by a few, whose monstrous heresy, it was prob- 
ably supposed, would escape animadversion from the 
enormity of the absurdity and the utter imprac- 
ticability of the success of the claim. The right of 
the whole is sealed by the blood of the Ee volution, 
founded upon solemn deeds of cession from sovereign 
states, deliberately executed in the face of the world, 
or resting upon neutral treaties concluded with for- 
eign powers, on ample equivalents contributed from 
the common treasury of the people of the United 
States. . . . Can you imagine that the states 
of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee would quietly 
renounce their right in all public lands west of 
them ? No, sir ! No, sir ! They would wade to 
their knees in blood, before they would make such 
an unjust and ignominious surrender.' ' 

Mr. Clay, by able arguments, caused his views to 
prevail in the Senate, but the measure was not acted 
upon in the House of Representatives. Thus with 
an enlightened policy on the subject of the public 
lands, friendship for the bank and for the " Ameri- 
can system" of which he stood as the particular 
champion, unalterable hostility to the doctrine of 
nullification as it was advanced in South Carolina, 
and opposition to all the sins of Jacksonism, petty 
and great, Clay went before the people of the 
United States as a presidential candidate in 1832. 
He and his friends felt certain that they would win. 
How could the party fail with such a leader on such 
a platform, against such an enemy — "the lank, 
lean, famished forms from fen and forest, and the 
four quarters of the Union," which on March 4, 
1829, to use words once employed by Clay, had 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 203 

" gathered together in the halls of patronage"? 1 
Surely the " gallant Harry of the West" would 
sweep the Union and make the four years gone by 
seem a mere nightmare in the history of the re- 
public. 

It is true that Jackson was favored by a number 
of circumstances aside from his control of a party 
machinery, now being constructed for the first time 
and of incalculable use to him in the contest. He 
had popularized himself by some threats which had 
escaped him, to hang Calhoun as a traitor, and by 
the sentiments which he had so bluntly expressed 
that the Union must be preserved. This deprived 
Clay of any advantage that he personally might 
have got from his opposition to the nullification 
movement. Jackson profited, too, by the introduc- 
tion into politics of the subj ect of free masonry. He 
was an active Mason. Clay also belonged to the 
order, though he had not recently attended its meet- 
ings, and the anti-Masons decided to put forward a 
candidate of their own. They even wished Clay to 
make way for them so that they themselves could 
bring Jacksonism to an end, but he said very truly, 
and in emphatic language, that masonry or anti- 
masonry had nothing whatever to do with politics. 
He wrote privately to Brooke that, in his opinion, 
one form of despotism would not be materially better 
than the other, and if it were Jackson against the 
anti-Masons it would be difficult for him to make a 
choice. 

Thus the opposition was divided and Clay lost 
much in many states which he might otherwise have 

» Colton, Vol. V, p. 463. 



204 HENRY CLAY 

carried with ease. The bank entered the campaign 
with pamphlets and circulars in its own behalf. 
To reasoning men such an educational process com- 
mended itself warmly, but the "old hero" in a 
death grapple with the "monster monopoly" was 
a pleasing picture to the unlettered masses. Instead 
of " Clay's rags," as the bank-notes were called, they 
were promised hard money. The ' ' corrupt bargain ' ' 
was brought out to do duty again ; indeed, it had 
nev T er been withdrawn from service. The defeat 
which Clay suffered was overwhelming. Of 288 
electoral votes only forty- nine were for him, — those 
of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Delaware 
and five votes in Maryland. The popular vote was 
707,217 for Jackson, 328,561 for Clay, and 254,720 
for William Wirt, the anti- Masonic candidate. 

That Mr. Clay's discouragement was great as he 
surveyed the scene is attested in a letter to his friend 
Brooke under date of January 17, 1833, when he 
said : " As to politics, we have no past or future. 
After forty-four years of existence under the present 
Constitution, what single principle is fixed? The 
bank ? No. Internal improvements % No. The 
tariff? No. Who is to interpret the Constitution ? 
We are as much afloat at sea as the day when the 
Constitution went into operation. There is nothing- 
certain, but that the will of Andrew Jackson is to 
govern, and that will fluctuates with the change of 
every pen which gives expression to it." 1 

The election did nothing to pacify the South 
Carolinians, who felt that they had as little to gain 
from Jackson as from Clay. They had voted for 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 347. 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 205 

neither one nor the other. Their electoral votes 
were cast for Governor John Floyd of Virginia, in 
whom they saw friendship for their particular views 
as to state sovereignty. It was clearly discerned 
that they would press their doctrine that the tariff 
law enacted at the last session of Congress, and 
signed by the President, was not binding upon them, 
and very likely by violent means. All the members 
returned to the second session of the Twenty-second 
Congress with the conviction that a national crisis 
was at hand. The legislature of South Carolina in 
October had called a convention to meet in the next 
month, and this body formally declared the tariff 
laws of the United States void and of no effect in 
that state. Methods of enforcing the extraordinary 
resolve were prescribed. 

The date set for this defiance of the Federal govern- 
ment was February, 1833. ' It was confidently be- 
lieved by Calhoun and his friends that the announce- 
ment of their policy would awaken a sympathetic 
response in other parts of the South, as this state's 
course in 1860 actually did. But the time was not 
yet ripe for it. Even in South Carolina itself com- 
plete unanimity of sentiment lacked, 2 and those 
who rode forward, under Calhoun's lead, were not a 
little afraid that they had gone too gaily out to the 
fray, especially when they read Jackson's proclam a 
tion of December 10th. It combined fatherly appeal 
with substantial threats, which left no room for 
doubt that, if necessary, the "old hero" himself 
would invade South Carolina, as he had invaded 

1 All faithfully described in Hunt's Calhoun, p, 149 et 8eq, 

2 Ibid,, p. 171 et seq. 



206 HENKY CLAY 

Florida, to chastise the Seininoles. He made short 
work of all of Calhoun's labored metaphysical 
speculations about nullification. " The Constitu- 
tion of the United States forms a government not a 
league," he said, "and whether it be formed by a 
compact between the states or in any other manner, 
its character is the same. ... I consider the 
power to annul a law of the United States incompat- 
ible with the existence of the Union, contradicted 
expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthor- 
ized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle 
on which it was founded, and destructive of the 
great object for which it was formed. . . . Our 
Constitution does not contain the absurdity of giving 
power to make laws and another power to resist 
them. To say that- any state may at pleasure secede 
from the Union is to say that the United States are 
not a nation." 

While the South Carolina manifestoes produced 
almost no enthusiasm in other states, Jackson's 
proclamation nearly everywhere met with warm re- 
sponse. Calhoun saw that he was face to face with 
a difficult situation. That he would be needed upon 
the floor of the Senate he very well understood, so 
Hayne stepped out to make a place for him, and he 
resigned the Vice-President's chair. Military meas- 
ures looking to the state's defense were adopted by 
the people, and Calhoun's journey to Washington 
was dramatic. As they crowded to see him pass, 
some, with Jackson's words ringing in their ears, 
must have doubted whether he would come back 
alive. 

In this emergency there was need of accommoda- 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 207 

tion by compromise. If it were not effected, none 
could certainly foretell the result. On both sides, 
despite au appearance of great earnestness, there 
were movements looking toward a retreat from the 
advanced ground which each had come to occupy. 
The " American system" must suffer on the one 
hand, and the so-called right of nullification on the 
other. Soon after Christmas, the House of Rep re 
sentatives received a compromise tariff bill from the 
Committee on Ways and Means. The same Con- 
gress which less than six months before was ready to 
increase the duties to almost any height, upon the 
demand of the protectionists of the North and West, 
was now ready to sweep them away. The new 
House bill contemplated reducing them to the level 
of 1816, when the system of favoring native indus- 
tries through the tariff was begun. 

This plan might have succeeded but for South 
Carolina's counter measures, following Jackson's 
proclamation. u Old Hickory" was aroused now, 
as he had not been before, and on January 16th he 
laid before Congress in a special message the infor- 
mation which he had received concerning the atti- 
tude of the nullifiers. He asked for additional 
authority wherewith to enforce the revenue laws. 
He announced privately that he had put himself into 
communication with the Unionists of South Caro- 
lina, and if Congress did not support him, he would 
march 200,000 men into the state upon hearing of 
any violent step taken to carry the nullification 
measures into effect. 1 Congress, however, was not 
unmindful of Jackson's recommendations on such a 
■ Hunt, Calhoun, pp. 178-179. 



208 HENBY CLAY 

subject and it at once brought forward a measure 
known to the South Carolinians as the " Bloody 
Bill." It should be called, said Kepresentative Mc- 
Duffie upon one occasion, in the House, " an act to 
subvert the sovereignty of the states of this Union, 
to establish a consolidated government without lim- 
itation of powers, and to make the civil subordinate 
to the military power." 

The Senate continued to debate this Force Bill 
and the House the Tariff Bill, and there was no im- 
mediate prospect of any understanding being arrived 
at as late as on February 11th, only three weeks be- 
fore the life of the Twenty-second Congress would 
expire. South Carolina had meanwhile set forward 
the date upon which she would put Calhoun's 
theory into operation, and her great leader in the 
Senate continued to argue his points with much 
ability ; he gave signs of yielding nothing of his 
faith in his peculiar view of the nature of the Union 
established under the Constitution. 

Clay found no pleasure in surveying the scene. 
His friend, Senator John M. Clayton, of Delaware, 
looking upon the troubled faces of the South Caro- 
lina delegation in Congress, said one day : " Clay, 
these are fine fellows. It won't do to let old Jack- 
son hang them. We must save them." On Janu- 
ary 17th Clay was trying to evolve some plan of 
settlement. He had not yet matured it, and was 
not very hopeful of achieving anything. On that 
date he wrote his friend Brooke : " Any plan that I 
might offer would be instantly opposed, because I 
offered it. Sometimes I have thought that, consid- 
ering how I have been and still am treated by both 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 209 

parties [the tariff and the anti-tariff] I would leave 
them to fight it out as well as they can. The lin- 
gering hopes for my country prevail over these feel- 
ings of a just resentment, and my judgment tells me 
that, disregarding them, I ought to the last to en- 
deavor to do what I can to preserve its institutions, 
and reestablish confidence and concord." 1 

It is said that in the next following days Clay 
and Calhoun had a number of conferences, 2 in which 
they mutually agreed upon a plan of action. Clay 
meanwhile had also consulted with a number of 
Pennsylvania and other manufacturers, as to the 
course which he was about to adopt. He told them 
that if they did not accede to some modifications 
now, they would very probably have changes forced 
upon them by the next Congress, already elected 
and of known hostility to the " American system." 
These considerations, coupled with knowledge of 
the state of affairs in South Carolina, presented to 
them by one whom they esteemed and trusted as a 
particular friend, were effective in winning them 
over to his point of view. 

On February 11th Mr. Clay gave notice to the 
Senate that he should on the following day " ask leave 
to introduce a bill to modify the various acts im- 
posing duties on imports." 3 Agreeable to this 
announcement, on Tuesday, February 12th, Mr. 
Clay rose in the Senate, presented his bill and spoke 
upon the subject at length. His general plan called 
for a tariff of twenty per cent, ad valorem upon ar- 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 347. 

2 John Quincy Adams, Memoirs. Vol. VIII, p. 524. 

3 Gales and Seaton's Register, Vol. IX, Part 1, p. 431. 



210 HENRY CLAY 

tides which were subject to duty at all. Where the 
duties now exceeded this amount, they were to be 
reduced one-tenth every second year until 1841. 
Then one- half the remaining excess was to be taken 
off, and in 1842 the rest of the excess, bringing the 
rales down to the general ad valorem level. By this 
gradual method it was believed that the manufac- 
turers could and would accommodate themselves to 
lower duties. If, after the nine years had passed, 
they felt that they could not, Mr. Clay thought that 
redress might be hopefully sought from " posterity." 
His language and manner, as befitted the occa- 
sion, were conciliatory upon the subject of South 
Carolina, as well as in reference to the protective 
system, which seemed to be almost apart of his own 
fibre. He wanted harmony, he said eloquently at 
one point in his speech. "I wish to see the resto- 
ration of those ties which have carried us trium- 
phantly through two wars. I delight not in this 
perpetual turmoil. Let us have peace and become 
once more united as a band of brothers." He be- 
lieved that he understood South Carolina a little bet- 
ter since he had returned to Congress for the present 
session. She disclaimed the intention of employing 
force in the attainment of her objects. Her pur- 
poses were of a civil nature. She thought that she 
could " oust the United States from her limits " by 
a "law suit." He had no belief in the success of 
any such contention. The state had been "rash, 
intemperate and greatly in error," and had "made 
up an issue unworthy of her." She was merely do- 
ing, however, with more rashness what some other 
states had attempted to do. He did not fail to draw 






NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 211 

a picture of what South Carolina's situation would 
be, if she were an independent state, and it was one 
little calculated to attract her to her liberty. Ris- 
ing to another height he exclaimed : 

" If there be any who want civil war, who want 
to see the blood of any portion of our countrymen 
spilt, I am not one of them ; I wish to see war of 
no kind ; but above all do I not desire to see a civil 
war. When war begins, whether civil or foreign, 
no human foresight is competent to foresee when, 
or how, or where it is to terminate. But when a 
civil war shall be lighted up in the bosom of our 
own happy land, and armies are marching, and 
commanders are winning their victories, and fleets 
are in motion on our coast, tell me, if you can, tell 
me, if any human being can tell, its duration. 
God alone knows where such a war will end. In 
what state will be left our institutions? In what 
state our liberties ! I want no war j above all, no 
war at home.'' 

. Though South Carolina were rash, he did not wish 
* ' to disgrace her, nor any other member of this 
Union." He did not desire "to see dimmed the 
lustre of one single star of that glorious confederacy 
which constitutes our political sun ; still less do I 
wish to see it blotted out and its light obliterated 
forever." He asked the senators to look for one 
moment beyond considerations of party, give their 
attention to this bill, and " heal before they are yet 
bleeding the wounds of our distracted country." ! 

After a few other speakers had briefly presented 
their views, Calhoun rose in his place and expressed 
1 Gales and Seafcon's Register \ p. 471. 



212 HENEY CLAY 

his approval of the object and terms of the bill, 
whereupon there was ' ' tumultuous approbation ' ' 
in the galleries. The chair indeed ordered them to 
be cleared, but upon an expression of disapproval 
by one or two members, this direction was with- 
drawn and the crowd of spectators remained, fol- 
lowing the course of events with grave and attentive 
interest. 

Calhoun spoke at great length on the 15th. 
Webster replied, and the opposite views of the 
nature of the Constitution were again set forth in 
extenso. Webster, however, condemned the Com- 
promise because it sacrificed the tariff, to which his 
section was now very much devoted, 1 and Clay spoke 
again on February 25th with the hope of reconcil- 
ing the protectionists to the measure. In the ardor 
of the moment he probably said more in favor of 
the protective character of the scheme than he could 
well substantiate. It was only his great power, as 
a leader among the tariff men, that made the bill 
for a gradual reduction of duties in any way savory, 
and he now spoke with all the vehemence and fas- 
cination which he so well knew how to command. 
He returned to the immediate need of propitiating 
the South, if peace were to be maintained. He 
again deplored civil war and did not hesitate to 
allude to the augmented fear which he would feel 
regarding it, were it conducted by Andrew Jack- 
son. " In the midst of magazines," he asked, " who 
knows when the fatal spark may produce a terrible 
explosion ? The battle once begun, where is its 
limit 1 What latitude will circumscribe its rage ? 
1 Lodge, Webster, pp. 213, 218 et seq. 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPEOMISE 213 

Who is to command our armies ? When, and 
where, and how is the war to cease ? In what con- 
dition will the peace leave the ' American system,' 
the American Union and what is more than all, 
American liberty ? I cannot profess to have a con- 
fidence, which I have not, in this administration, 
but, if I had all confidence in it, I should still wish 
to pause and, if possible by any honorable adjust- 
ment, to prevent awful consequences, the extent of 
which no human wisdom can foresee." 

The " enforcing bill " should not be passed alone ; 
it must be accompanied by " the bill of peace." 
He continued : 

"The difference between the friends and the 
foes of the Compromise, under consideration, is that 
they would in the enforcing act send forth alone a 
flaming sword. We would send out that also, but 
along with it the olive branch, as a messenger of 
peace. They cry out, ( The law ! the law ! the law ! 
Power ! Power ! Power ! ' We too reverence the 
law, and bow to the supremacy of its obligations, 
but we are in favor of the law, executed in mild- 
ness, and of power tempered with mercy. They, as 
we think, would hazard a civil commotion, begin- 
ning in South Carolina and extending God only 
knows where. While we would vindicate the Fed- 
eral government, we are for peace, if possible, union 
and liberty. We want no war, above all, no civil 
war, no family strife. We want to see no sacked 
cities, no desolated fields, no smoking ruins, no 
streams of American blood shed by American 
nrms." 

He was charged with ambition. He had none, 



214 HENRY CLAY 

44 1 am no candidate for any office in the gift of the 
people of these states, united or separated ; I never 
wish, never expect to be. Pass this bill, tranquil- 
ize the country, restore confidence and affection in 
the Union, and I am willing to go home to ' Ash- 
land' and renounce public service forever. I 
should there find in its groves, under its shades, on 
its lawns, amid my flocks and herds, in the bosom 
of my family, sincerity and truth, attachment, and 
fidelity, and gratitude which I have not always 
found in the walks of public life. Yes, I have am- 
bition ; but it is the ambition of being the humble 
instrument in the hands of Providence to reconcile 
a divided people ; once more to revive concord and 
harmony in a distracted land — the pleasing ambi- 
tion of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a 
free, united, prosperous and fraternal people." 

Thus did Clay allay and pacify opposition ; thus 
did he " draw the lightning from all the clouds 
which were lowering over the country." 1 The 
Force Bill and the Tariff Bill were passed by both 
houses of Congress and signed by the President. 
To Clay's own friends, if not to all others, it seemed 
as though he had won "the imperishable glory of 
preventing civil war." a James Madison wrote, 
complimenting him in the warmest terms. The old 
Virginia sage hoped that in the period of nine or ten 
years allowed to the manufacturers under the Com- 
promise that they would learn ' ' to swim without 
the bladders which have supported them," and that 

such a situation would never arise again. Never- 

I 

1 Nicholas Biddle to Clay, February 28, 1833. 
3 Private Correspondence, p. 350. 



NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 215 

theless, he was not in any way pleased with the 
outlook. He foresaw what in the fulness of time 
came to pass. It was "painful" for him to con- 
sider the signs of a " permanent incompatibility and 
even hostility of interests between the South and 
the North," and the " contagious zeal in vindicating 
and varnishing the doctrine of nullification and se- 
cession ; the tendency of all of which, whatever be 
the intention, is to create a disgust with the Union 
and then to open the way out of it." He foresaw 
that the tariff would make way for slavery as a sub- 
ject of discord. " What madness in the South," 
said he, " to look for greater safety in disunion ! It 
would be worse than jumping out of the frying-pan 
into the fire from a fear of the frying-pan." ] Some- 
thing akin to this did it indeed prove to be years 
after Mr. Madison's and Mr. Clay's voices were 
heard no longer in the land. 

1 Private Correspondence, pp. 359, 365. 



CHAPTEE IX 

THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 

The importance of Clay's service as a pacificator 
in the great sectional difference of 1833 seemed at 
the time immense. Nearly everywhere, except in 
South Carolina, his interposition was deeply appre- 
ciated. It was believed that he had prevented a 
civil war which, with Jackson at its head, would 
have been not only sanguinary, but also destructive 
of the character of the government. Clay himself 
lived to doubt the value of his interference, espe- 
cially as Calhoun upon going home disseminated 
the view that nullification had proven to be all that 
he had ever claimed for it. It had been South Caro- 
lina's remedy against the Federal government on a 
subject of oppression and the people of the state 
seemed to press it still closer to their hearts. Now 
that the Civil War has come and gone, and we are 
enabled to view the history of the time in sober 
perspective, it seems clear that the lesson to the 
South might much better have been administered 
thus early in the development of the spirit of dis- 
union and separation. The experience then might 
have been quite as salutary, with the expenditure 
of much less blood and treasure ; yet slavery would 
have remained. That was the real ground of dif- 
ference, though men like Madison, Clay and Jack- 
son could not perceive it, if indeed did any one. 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 217 

The tariff was but a symptom of economic disorders 
which had not yet been correctly diagnosed. 

Up to the day of the battle of Bull Run, and in- 
deed for a year or two afterward, what would most 
men not have given for some basis of conciliation, 
understanding and peace f It is only by compre- 
hending how great was the desire to avoid a clash 
between the states, and upon what proper senti- 
ments it was founded, that we can conceive of the 
importance which a service like Clay's assumed in 
the public mind. 

Though the gradually falling tariff was displeas- 
ing to the manufacturers, they soon became recon- 
ciled to their situation. Pel eg Sprague wrote to 
Clay on March 19th that in six months' time the 
Compromise would be considered in New England 
"as the most wise, patriotic, beneficent and splen- 
did act of legislation that any individual in this 
country has ever achieved." x Abbott Lawrence 
expressed a similar view, and Webster himself soon 
forgave Clay for opposing him. Their cordial re- 
lations, indeed, had never been interrupted and 
they were the firmest of friends. Upon his return 
to " Ashland," after the close of the arduous 
session, Clay immediately occupied himself with his 
farming interests, now almost entirely confined ' ' to 
the rearing of all kinds of live-stock." He wrote 
his friend Brooke that he had in his stables and 
fields "the Maltese ass, the Arabian horse, the 
Merino and Saxe Merino sheep, the English Here- 
ford and Durham cattle, the goat, the mule and the 
hog." He enjoyed them all. "The progress of 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 354. 



218 HEXEY CLAY 

these animals from their infancy to maturity/ ' he 
continued, "presents a constantly varying subject 
of interest, and I never go out of my house without 
meeting with some of theni to engage agreeably my 
attention. Then our fine greensward, our natural 
parks, our beautiful undulating country, every- 
where exhibiting combinations of grass and trees, 
or luxuriant crops, — all conspire to render home 
delightful." ! 

His land bill, which had passed the Senate twice 
and the House once, having been the subject of a 
pocket veto by Jackson, after the adjournment of 
Congress, still occupied his mind. But for this, he 
wrote Brooke that he " certainly" would resign his 
seat in the Senate. He had no wish for place. 
Nothing was "so abhorrent" to his feelings as to 
appear to be "a teasing suppliant for office." The 
President's position was "full of care and vexa- 
tion." It could have " no charms " for him, unless 
it should come as a result of " the willing suffrages 
of a large majority of his countrymen." It could 
not come in this way now. He doubted much 
whether "any successful opposition" could be 
made against "General Jackson's designated suc- 
cessor." He had not been treated well and had 
" borne the taunts of the Jackson party and prin- 
ciples long enough." "What," he asked, "can 
one man do alone against a host f " He was "worn 
out and exhausted in the service." He wished and 
needed "repose." 

In a letter to Brooke a few months later he con- 
tinued to express despairing views. The country 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 361. 



THE WAK AGAINST JACKSON 219 

was governed " pretty much by the will of one 
man." "If that single man," said he, " were an 
enlightened philosopher, and a true patriot, the 
popular sanction which is given to all his acts, 
however inconsistent or extravagant, might find 
some justification. But when we consider that he 
is ignorant, passionate, hypocritical, corrupt and 
easily swayed by the base men who surround hiiu, 
what can we think of the popular approbation 
which he receives?" One thing only was wanted 
to complete the public degradation, and that was 
1 i that he should name his successor. . . . His 
election once secured, the corrupt means of preserv- 
ing and perpetuating power, now in successful oper- 
ation at Albany, will be transferred to Washington. 
And there we shall have a state of things which will 
prepare the public mind for a dissolution of the 
Union, to which, unfortunately, there is less aver- 
sion now than could be wished by those who love 
their country. I hope that I may be deceived in 
these predictions ; but I fear I will not." ' 

But these were unhappy moods which came upon 
him at " Ashland," when out of sight and hearing 
of that legion of friends whose devotion excelled 
any ever accorded to a public man in America. 
He had contemplated a trip in the summer 
to New England, by way of Niagara Falls and 
the Canadian cities of the St. Lawrence, which he 
had never seen. He was obliged to postpone hivS 
departure until the autumn, however, and then 
changed his course so that he both went and came 
by New York City. Though he sought to travel in 

1 Private Correspondence, pp. 368-369. 



220 HENRY CLAY 

privacy, this, as usual, was uot to be his fate. "His 
whole route," says a contemporary biographer 1 
11 was like the movement of some mighty conqueror 
— almost one unbroken triumphal procession." 

In New York a large company of prominent citi- 
zens on horseback escorted him to his lodgings. 
The Governor's Room in the City Hall was put at 
his disposal. There he received all sorts and condi- 
tions of men who came to pay their respects. In 
New England, shops and factories were closed, so 
that all classes of the people could go out to see and 
welcome him. Silver pitchers and other testimoni- 
als of affection were presented. " I was taken into 
custody," he said in one of his many speeches 
during the progress of the journey, " made captive 
of, but placed withal in such delightful bondage 
that I could find no strength and no desire to break 
away from it." He reached Washington in time for 
the opening of the session, when he could write to 
Judge Brooke : " My journey was full of gratifica- 
tion. In spite of ray constant protestations that it 
was undertaken with objects of a private nature ex- 
clusively, and my uniformly declining public din- 
ners, the people everywhere, and at most places 
without discrimination of parties, took possession 
of me and gave enthusiastic demonstrations of 
respect, attachment and confidence. In looking 
back on the scenes through which I passed, they 
seem to me to have resembled those of enchantment 
more than of real life. ' y 

The first question to confront the Senate of the 
new Congress was a message from Jackson concern- 

1 Mallory, Vol. I, p. 65. 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 221 

ing the land bill which he had pocketed in March. 
This was entirely gratuitous. It was another Con- 
gress and the bill was dead, but the President wished 
to fling the " carcass " 1 at Clay's feet. It was vain 
to say that Jackson himself had asked for the pas- 
sage of a land bill. He did not want it now ; in inany 
ways this one did not conform to his wishes. It 
only remained for Clay to say that to withhold the 
veto until this time was arbitrary, unconstitutional 
and despotic, and that he would on the following 
Tuesday ask leave to introduce a new bill with 
similar purposes in view. 

This question was wholly dwarfed, however, by 
the sudden and surprising resolution of the Presi- 
dent to remove the government deposits from the 
United States Bank, and accomplish the ruin of the 
" monster," as he persisted in denominating and 
regarding it. Incidentally, he would disturb, if 
he did not paralyze, credit and trade, but this 
was nothing in comparison with the pleasure of 
executing his dear purpose in relation to a hated 
establishment. The storm broke at once. In his 
message to Congress in 1832 Jackson had ques- 
tioned the safety of the government moneys in 
the hands of the bank and its branches, and the 
House had ordered an examination. By a vote of 
109 to 46 it was determined that there was no ground 
whatever for alarm. Jackson went ahead without 
regard to this opinion. He had resolved to take 
the deposits away from the bank, and to ruin it. 
His only course was through the Secretary of the 
Treasury, who was clothed with the right to decide 

1 ColtoD, Vol. V, p. 570. 



222 HENKY CLAY 

where the deposits were to be placed. In May, 
1833, he reconstructed his cabinet with this object 
in view, transferring McLane, known to favor the 
bank, to the Department of State, and putting at 
the head of the Treasury William J. Duane, of 
Philadelphia, the sou of the well-kuowu editor of 
the Aurora, the vitriolic newspaper which had been 
so powerful in the work of driving the Federalists 
out of office in 1801. It was believed that he would 
be a willing tool, though Jackson erred in his judg- 
ment completely. So extraordinary, indeed revo- 
lutionary, did the suggestion seem to be that Duane 
refused to obey the order when Jackson sent it to 
him. Nor would he resign. If he were to go, it 
would be by removal from office, which was 
promptly effected by the President who, late in 
September, 1833, transferred Eoger B. Taney from 
the Attorney -Generalship to the Treasury Depart- 
ment. 

Taney complied at once. Nearly $10,000,000 
were in the bank, and when these funds were with- 
drawn, no more were to be deposited to replace them. 
The public money henceforth, at the Secretary's dis- 
cretion, was to be put in state banks, soon known 
therefore as "pet banks." The fiscal affairs of 
the country were immediately thrown into great 
excitement, and the condition of the stock and 
money markets approached a panic. The papers 
bearing upon this unusual procedure came into the 
Twenty-third Congress at its opening and the three 
leaders of the Senate, Clay, Webster and Calhoun, 
were on duty, side by side, ready to oppose Jack- 
son with all their resources and abilities. It was 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 223 

one of the most remarkable sessions of Congress 
which the country has ever seen. The public 
crowded the galleries as though it were a play. 
Such oratory, such parliamentary finesse, such 
clever retort and debate had not been heard before 
in any legislative hall in America. 

Mr. Clay opened the fire upon the President on 
December 10th, asking him to lay before the Senate 
a paper concerning the removal of the deposits, 
which led Jackson to reply that it was no affair of 
the Senate ; his responsibility was to the people. 
It was December 26th before Clay's artillery was 
fully charged. Then he introduced two resolutions 
as follows : 

" Resolved, that by dismissing the late Secretary 
of the Treasury because he would not, contrary to 
his sense of his own duty, remove the money of the 
United States in deposit with the Bank of the 
United States and its branches in conformity with 
the President's opinion, and by appointing his 
successor to effect such removal, which has been 
done, the President has assumed the exercise of a 
power over the Treasury of the United States, not 
granted to him by the Constitution and laws, and 
dangerous to the liberties of the people. 

" Resolved, that the reasons assigned by the 
Secretary of the Treasury for the removal of the 
money of the United States, deposited in the Bank 
of the United States and its branches, communicated 
to Congress on the 3d of December, 1833, are un- 
satisfactory and insufficient." 

Clay followed the introduction of these resolutions 
with a speech which was in his most effective 



224 HENRY CLAY 

manner. It continued for two days, and rang up 
and down the Capitol, soon to reverberate through 
all the land. He wasted no time in going about 
the work in hand, for these were the words with 
which he began : 

' l We are in the midst of a revolution hitherto 
bloodless, but rapidly tending toward a total change 
of the pure republican character of the government 
and to the concentration of all power in the hands 
of one man." 

His arraignment was strong and impressive. 
That Jackson had usurped authority, strained the 
provisions of the Constitution, consulted his own 
will only in regard to great public matters, and 
defied the legislature and other coordinate branches 
of the government, needed no particular demon- 
stration. Though he still could do no wrong in 
the view of vast numbers of the people, Clay did 
not hesitate on this account. Some hyperbole may 
seem to lurk in the words with which he closed his 
remarkable second day's speech, but they were 
spoken with absolute sincerity, and they seemed to 
be the natural climax of his argument. 

"We behold," he said, "the usual incidents of 
approaching tyranny. The land is filled with spies 
and informers ; and detraction and denunciation 
are the orders of the day. People, especially 
official incumbents in this place, no longer dare to 
speak in the fearless tones of manly freedom, but 
in the cautious whispers of trembling slaves. The 
premonitory symptoms of despotism are upon us, 
and if Congress do not apply an instantaneous and 
effective remedy, the fatal collapse will soon come 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 225 

on and we shall die, base, mean and abject slaves 
— the scorn and contempt of mankind — unpitied, 
unwept, unmourned. ' ' 

The distress occasioned among business men by 
the removal of the deposits, and a political war 
upon the country's most powerful fiscal agency was 
real. Any intelligent Executive, properly sensitive 
to the consequences of his actions, could not have 
adopted such a policy. But a rare bigot when once 
animated to any course, and with a determination to 
enforce his commands, borrowed from the battle-field, 
the only experience in which his life had been rich, 
Jackson went forward without regard for the fact 
that the bank was performing all its functions in an 
honest and effectual way ; that no other agency was 
at hand to fill its place ; and that interference with 
its operations would bring evil, if not ruin, to multi- 
tudes of people. They sent their petitions to 
Congress day after day, and Clay and Webster 
with great solemnity and eloquence presented them 
in the Senate. 

One of the most remarkable scenes of the session 
was witnessed on March 7, 1834, when in bringing 
forward a memorial of a number of sufferers in 
Philadelphia, Clay addressed himself directly to 
Jackson's favorite and chosen legatee who, as Vice- 
President, was the presiding officer of the Senate. 
So earnest did the orator become that he quite un- 
consciously, it is said, left his place, still speaking 
in the most impassioned way, with all the effective 
gestures that accompanied his delivery, till he stood 
directly before the Vice-President's desk, where he 
continued his entreaties. "By your official and 



226 HENRY CLAY 

personal relations with the President," said Clay, 
"you maintain with him an intercourse which I 
neither enjoy nor covet. Go to him and tell him, 
without exaggeration but in the language of truth 
and sincerity, the actual condition of his bleeding 
country. Tell him it is nearly ruined and undone 
by the measures which he has been induced to put 
in operation. Tell him that his experiment is 
operating on the nation like the philosopher's ex- 
periment upon a convulsed animal in an exhausted 
receiver, and that it must expire in agony if he 
does not pause, give it free and sound circulation, 
and suffer the energies of the people to be revived 
and restored. . . . Depict to him, if you can 
find language to portray, the heartrending wretch- 
edness of thousands of the working classes cast out 
of employment. Tell him of the tears of helpless 
widows, no longer able to earn their bread ; and of 
unclad and unfed orphans who have been thrown 
by his policy out of the busy pursuits in which but 
yesterday they were gaining an honest liveli- 
hood. . . . Tell him to guard himself against 
the possibility of an odious comparison, with that 
worst of the Roman emperors who, contemplating 
with indifference the conflagration of the mistress 
of the world, regaled himself during the terrific 
scene in the throng of his dancing courtiers. . . . 
Entreat him to pause and to reflect that there is a 
point beyond which human endurance cannot go ; 
and let him not drive this brave, generous and 
patriotic people to madness and despair." 

Thus did Clay pour out a fire that seemed to come 
from his very soul. He knew that he had left the 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 227 

" beaten track" of debate; his apology must be 
found in " the anxious solicitude which I feel for 
the condition of the country." He hoped that he 
had touched the Vice-President's heart and excited 
iu him " a glow of patriotism." How successful he 
had been he soon learned when at the couclusiou of 
the speech, the " old fox," who had been looking at 
Clay as though he were absorbing every word in 
order to have it in hand to carry to his chief, called 
another to the chair, and going down upon the floor 
gravely asked Clay for a pinch of his fine Maccaboy 
snuff, whereupon, having received it, he quite as 
gravely walked away. Of course, nothing at all 
came of this impassioned appeal ; though at a pub- 
lic meeting in Philadelphia it was resolved " that 
Martin Van Buren deserves and will receive the 
execration of all good men should he shirk from the 
responsibility of carrying to Andrew Jackson the 
message sent by the Honorable Henry Clay." 

On March 28th Clay's resolutions with some im- 
material amendments were passed : that by which 
the President was accused of an unconstitutional 
act, by a vote of twenty -six to twenty ; the other by 
which the reasons given for the removal of the de- 
posits were declared to be " unsatisfactory and in- 
sufficient," by a vote of twenty- eight to eighteen. 

A joint resolution offered by Clay, directing a 
restoration of the deposits to the Bank of the United 
States, also passed the Senate, though it failed in 
the House which was in control of the Jackson 
men. There was now war to the knife, between the 
President and the Senate. In response to Clay's 
resolutions of censure, Jackson sent a " protest" 



228 HENRY CLAY 

which he demanded should be entered upon the 
j ournal of the Senate. That body refused to receive 
it, denying such a right on the part of the Presi- 
dent. Sixteen senators voted to enter the ' ' pro- 
test," while twenty-seven voted not to do so, after 
three weeks of fierce debate with Clay, Webster and 
Calhoun on one side, and Benton leading on the 
other in Jackson's defense. The President was 
roundly denounced for usurpations of office in not 
forwarding the nomination of Taney, whom he had 
chosen to do his bidding in reference to the removal 
of the deposits, after two other secretaries had re- 
fused. He knew, of course, that it would be re- 
jected. The Senate refused to confirm the names of 
four men appointed directors of the United States 
Bank. Jackson returned them with a scolding, 
and the Senate refused again. The Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, Andrew Stevenson, of 
Virginia, was nominated for Minister to England. 
The name was rejected by the Senate. In the sum- 
mer of 1834 Taney's name finally arrived ; it was, 
of course, voted down, as expected, an act which 
furiously enraged Jackson, who was nevertheless 
obliged to appoint Levi Woodbury in his place, 
and hold Taney for a vacancy on the Supreme 
Bench. 

The session ended with no net gain except a 
fanfare of oratory, and the conviction which 
promptly 'settled upon the country that Jackson 
had made an end of the bank. Business might, as 
soon as it could, accommodate itself to the new con- 
ditions under which it must operate, and this it 
proceeded to do with more success than Clay or any 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 229 

of his friends had thought possible when they so 
vigorously denounced the action of the President. 
In the elections of 1834 a considerable accession to 
the an ti- Jackson strength was seen. It was in this 
year that Clay in Congress gave his party the name 
which ever afterward attached to it. He called 
himself and his followers Whigs, likening them to 
the Whigs of England, " the champions of liberty, 
the friends of the people'' ; while upon his op- 
ponents he attempted, though unsuccessfully, to 
fasten the name of Tories, "supporters of execu- 
tive power, of royal prerogative, of the maxim that 
the king could do no wrong, of the detestable doc- 
trines of passive obedience and non-resistance," 
recalling the much hated element in the American 
population during the Eevolutionary War. 1 

With the passing of conditions of distress in 
the business world, however, the "hero" seemed 
greater than ever before. Clay could say that the 
evils suffered in business circles were not so endur- 
ing as he had once feared and supposed, but he 
could insist that Jackson's course was no less high- 
handed and in violation of constitutional authority. 
Little enough did the hordes which "Old Hick- 
ory" led care about the Constitution. The bank, 
broken on the wheel of his iron will, seemed to the 
masses, from whom his strength was recruited, the 
odious monopoly which he declared it to be, and he 
emerged in victory. 

Mr. Clay was soon called upon to subordinate all 
partisan reflections, to subdue his feelings, as much 
outraged as they had been, to the work of extri- 

1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 629. 



230 HENKY CLAY 

eating the country from a critical situation on a 
foreign question, into which it had been brought by 
Jackson's hot impulses. France by a treaty signed 
in Paris on July 4, 1831, had agreed to pay the 
United States $5,000,000 to indemnify the nation 
for damages sustained by its shipping during the 
wars of Napoleon. The first instalment was due, 
and should have been paid on February 2, 1S33, but 
the French parliament failed to make any pro vision 
for it, and it was suggested to Jackson that he 
refer to the matter in his annual message to 
Congress in 1834. This he did in language which 
he would have employed in his dealings with Henry 
Clay, Nicholas Biddle or William J. Duane. He 
recommended to Congress that "a law be passed 
authorizing reprisals upon French property, in case 
provision shall not be made for the payment of the 
debt at the approaching session of the French 
Chambers." These were the words of one mani- 
festly inexperienced in diplomacy and they were 
well calculated to cause grave offense. 

When the mails carried the news to Europe the 
French government, in response to popular clamor, 
recalled its minister at Washington, and gave our 
representative in Paris his conge, at once making the 
situation one of much gravity. Clearly something 
must be done and attention was again turned to 
Clay. As chairman of the Committee on Foreign 
Eelations in the Senate, he took up the recommend- 
ations of the message, and it was his task, while in 
a measure supporting the President and preserving 
the national amour propre, to propitiate France, 
which clearly had aright to better treatment, if there 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 231 

were to be a continuance of good feeling between 
the two powers. The breach was delicately ap- 
proached, and further rupture avoided by the re- 
port of Clay's committee, which offered the following 
resolution to the Senate : 

"Resolved, that it is inexpedient at this time to 
pass any law vesting in the President authority for 
making reprisals upon French property, in the con- 
tingency of provision not being made for paying to 
the United States the indemnity stipulated by the 
treaty of 1831, during the present session of the 
French Chambers." 

He did not enter upon any defense of Jackson for 
his indiscreet language ; that he could not do. Yet 
he refrained from the energetic denunciation which 
such action might have been held to deserve, and 
would have received, no doubt, had it involved only 
the nation' s domestic concerns. With slight changes 
of phraseology, the resolution passed the Senate by 
a unanimous vote, and the object was accomplished. 
The French legislative chambers were mollified and 
after a few characteristic passages, which in 1836 
again seemed to point to war, the money was paid 
and the trouble came to an end. 

There was an echo of the sentiments which Mr. 
Clay had expressed in 1819 on the subject of the 
Seminole War, and at other times in reference to 
the Indians, in what it was his pleasure to say in 
February, 1835, in presenting a memorial to the Sen- 
ate on behalf of the Cherokees of Georgia. He was 
again "the Great Commoner,' 7 with an awakened 
sympathy for the downtrodden and oppressed. In 
Georgia Indians had been driven from their lands, 



232 HENKY CLAY 

and it was asked that aid be given to enable them 
to remove beyond the Mississippi. 

It was a severe indictment of the state of Georgia 
for robbing the aborigines of their lands, in viola- 
tion of solemn treaty provisions, iterated and often 
confirmed, into which Clay courageously launched. 
No fear of giving offense deterred him when he saw 
a wrong to be denounced. The Indians, he said, 
were a part of the human race, " as capable of pleas- 
ure and pain, and invested with as indisputable a 
right, as we have, to judge of and pursue their hap- 
piness. Thrust out from human society, without 
the sympathies of any, and placed without the pale 
of common justice, who is there to protect him, or 
to defend his rights ! " u It is said," he continued, 
' * that annihilation is the destiny of the Indian race. 
Perhaps it is, judging from the past. But shall we 
therefore hasten it ? Death is the irreversible decree 
pronounced against the human race. Shall we ac- 
celerate its approach, because it is inevitable f No, 
sir. Let us treat with the utmost kindness, and the 
most perfect justice the aborigines whom Providence 
has committed to our guardianship. Let us confer 
upon them, if we can, the inestimable blessings of 
Christianity and civilization, and then, if they must 
sink beneath the progressive wave of civilized pop- 
ulation, we are free from all reproach and stand ac- 
quitted in the sight of God and man." ! 

Such sentiments, noble as they were, seemed like 
empty rhetoric to most men, and they were unhap- 
pily without influence in altering the policy toward 
the Indians. 

•Colton, Vol. V, p. 655. 



THE WAE AGAINST JACKSON 233 

An opportunity for the continuation of the cam- 
paign against Jackson, while at the same time dis- 
cussing a vital public question, was found in Febru- 
ary, 1835, when an effort was put forth to curb the 
President in the baneful practice of removing faith- 
ful men from office to make places for his partisans. 
Clay was glad to return to the topic. He never 
ceased to denounce this mischievous change of pub- 
lic custom, and now in the Senate, with the support 
of most of the able leaders in that body — leaders who 
at the time were unsurpassed for their brilliant qual- 
ities— he attempted to show that the practice was as 
unconstitutional as it was inexpedient. The debate 
was concentrated around a bill to repeal a law of 
1820, limiting the tenure of certain offices to a four- 
year term. Some of Jackson's firmest friends de- 
serted him upon this issue and the measure was 
passed in the Senate by a vote of thirty- one to six- 
teen. 

Again in the session of 1835-1836 Clay brought for- 
ward and spoke in advocacy of his plan for distrib- 
utiug among the states the proceeds of the sales of 
the public lands. He recalled that the issue had 
been forced upon him by the Jackson men in order 
to embarrass him as a presidential candidate in 
1832. Under this impulse he had studied the ques- 
tion, and developed a policy to which he attached 
great value. A bill, embodying it, which had passed 
Congress near the end of the session in 1833 had 
been killed by Jackson in what seemed to many 
a wholly unconstitutional manner. Clay believed 
that if it had been returned with a veto by 
the President, it could have been passed over that 



234 HENRY CLAY 

veto, and the states would now have been in the en- 
joyment of the money, which it was beneficently 
designed that they should use in behalf of internal 
improvements, education and the transportation to 
Africa of free negroes. Instead of this the national 
surplus was scattered about "in parcels amoug petty 
corporations.' ' It was "applied to increase the 
semi-annual dividends of favorite stockholders in 
favorite banks." 1 

But the bill, though it was passed by the Senate, 
failed in the House where Jackson was still in 
power. Clay, in the eyes of the country at this 
time, seemed to be not so great and so preeminent a 
figure, as four years before. His party was devel- 
oping other leaders, and, though he did not envy 
them their distinction, it was a new sensation to 
hear others spoken of as suitable to direct it in the 
presidential campaign of 1836. After Clay's over- 
whelming defeat in 1832, many believed and said 
that another name should be put forward. A little 
surprised, not unnaturally, at the resourcefulness 
of a party which seemed to be of his own creation, 
too much can easily be made of this fact. That he 
was a seeker for the presidency is an assumption 
with which every biographer of Clay sets out, and 
Schurz's assertions at least are based upon only one 
letter in Colton's collection addressed to an un- 
known correspondent. 2 There is no reason to think 
that Mr. Clay had the least desire to be the Whig 
nominee in the hopeless contest which approached. 

1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 31. 

* Private Correspondence, p. 392. Written from "Ashland," 
July 14, 1835. 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 235 

He knew full well, by sad experience, Jackson's 
strength with the people. He had for two or three 
years foreseen Van Buren's nomination and election 
with the corrupt support of the administration, and 
no one could have had a better right to discuss the 
respective chances of Daniel Webster, Judge Hugh 
L. White, of Tennessee, now in the Senate of the 
United States, lately turned against Jackson, whose 
warm friend he had earlier been, and General Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison, who had administered a 
famous defeat to a party of Indians at Tippecanoe 
in 1811, an " old hero " fit for a joust with Jack- 
son. 

The Whigs in truth were so disorganized that 
they went into the campaign without having held a 
national convention. It was their hope by support- 
ing men of strength in their respective sections to 
throw the election into the House of Representa- 
tives, and bring about a situation similar to that 
which had elevated John Quincy Adams to the 
presidency in 1824 ; but the plan which had Clay's 
approval, if indeed he were not the originator of it, 
failed, for Van Buren received 170 out of 294 elec- 
toral votes, a clear majority. Harrison secured 
seventy-three votes from Vermont, New Jersey, 
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. 
White carried Georgia and Jackson's own state, 
Tennessee ; Webster, Massachusetts ; while South 
Carolina instructed its eleven electors to vote for 
W. P. Mangum. 

To a man of Mr. Clay's disposition come fits of 
despondency, and at this time there was enough 
reason for one without believing that the choice of 



236 HENRY CLAY 

other candidates by the Whigs in 1836 had anything 
materially to do with this state of his mind. The 
malignities of Jackson and his friends, now con- 
tinuously directed against Clay — he was the princi- 
pal object of them all — for nearly twelve years, 
were hard to bear, especially when they seemed to 
have the endorsement of the nation, in so far as this 
could be gauged by popular elections. Late in 1835 
he lost his favorite and last surviving daughter, 
Mrs. Erwin. In June, 1836, James Madison, with 
whom Mr. Clay had always had the friendliest re- 
lations, died, and when he was not under some ex- 
citement, gloom was likely to possess his mind. 

Though he was to be reelected to the Senate by 
the legislature of Kentucky in the winter of 1836- 
1837, Clay often spoke of retiring to private life 
which, however, he must have known that he could 
not sincerely enjoy. It has always been a resource 
of public men to retire to the homes whence they 
have come, but the exhilaration of directing public 
affairs is so great that, after many years in service 
of this kind, and especially in parliamentary leader- 
ship, such as it had been Clay's part to play, with- 
drawal cannot be viewed with real pleasure. There 
was truth in the letter which he wrote to a number 
of his admirers in New York in the summer of 1837 : 

" I have not for several years looked to the event 
of my being placed in the chair of Chief Magistrate 
as one that was probable. My feelings and inten- 
tions have taken a different direction. While I am 
not insensible to the exalted honor of filling the 
highest office within the gift of this great people, I 
have desired retirement from the cares of public 



THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 237 

life ; and, although I have not been able fully to 
gratify this wish, I am in the enjoyment of compara- 
tive repose and looking anxiously forward to more. 
I should be extremely unwilling, without very 
strong reasons, to be thrown into the turmoil of a 
presidential canvass. Above all, I am most de- 
sirous not to seem, as in truth I am not, importu- 
nate for any public office whatever. If I were per- 
suaded that a majority of my fellow citizens desired 
to place me in the highest executive office, that 
sense of duty by which I have ever been guided 
would exact obedience to their will. Candor 
obliges me, however, to say that I have not seen 
sufficient evidence that they entertain such a de- 
sire." * 

Mr. Clay's displeasure was complete, as his term 
of six years as a senator came to an end, and as 
Jackson stepped out, leaving his office to his desig- 
nated successor, amid great popular acclamation, on 
March 4, 1837. It was not diminished by the fact 
that the resolution of censure for assumptions of 
power, which Clay had introduced into the Senate, 
and which had been passed by a vote of twenty-six 
to twenty on March 28, 1834, had a little while be- 
fore been expunged from the journals. This re- 
markable procedure was taken under the leadership 
of Benton, Jackson's particular representative in 
the Senate, who soon after its passage had an- 
nounced his intention of making the motion. If it 
did not pass, he would repeat it again and again 
until Jackson should be freed of this imputation 
upon his honor and intelligence. Benton pursued 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 417. 



238 HENEY CLAY 

the subject with inflexible determination. At the 
second session of the Congress which had passed the 
resolution, the proposal was voted down decisively 
thirty-nine to seven. The fourth time he brought 
the matter before the Senate at the session of 1836- 
1837, the Jackson men had at last gained a majority 
in that chamber. The legislatures of several states 
had instructed their senators to vote for the expung- 
ing resolution, and it became a national issue on the 
hustings and in the newspapers. 

Benton, on December 26, 1836, the anniversary of 
the day upon which Clay had moved the censure, 
again introduced the resolution with the knowledge 
that if he could hold Jackson's friends together, he 
would succeed. Benton himself had a wish to ob- 
literate the record, to stamp it out so that it could 
not be read. The senators upon whom he felt that 
he could rely were assembled at Boulanger's res- 
taurant, a famous place of resort in the Washington 
of the day, on the evening of January 14, 1837. 
The meeting lasted until after midnight. It was 
agreed that the resolution should be called up on 
the following Monday and that there should be no 
adjournment until it had passed. " Cold hams, 
turkeys, rounds of beef, pickles, wines and cups of hot 
coffee' ' were to be supplied to the faithful senators 
in a committee-room within convenient access to the 
Senate chamber. It was agreed among them that 
the record of the censure on the manuscript journal 
should have broad black lines drawn around it, 
while across its face in bold letters, were to be written 
the words—" Expunged by order of the Senate this 
16th day of January, 1837." 



THE WAE AGAINST JACKSON 239 

Not much speech was indulged in by Benton and 
his friends, who wished to bring the resolution to a 
vote as soon as possible. But the three great lead- 
ers, Clay, Webster and Calhoun, must be heard. 1 
While they foresaw the inevitable result, they had 
a duty to perform, and had no thought of surren- 
dering without vehement protest. Clay delivered 
in his august style an able discourse upon the sub- 
ject. He reviewed Jackson's extraordinary course 
in reference to the removal of the deposits from the 
bank. " I believed then in the truth of the resolu- 
tion," said Clay, " and I now in niy place and under 
all my responsibility re-avow my unshaken convic- 
tion of it. . . . I put it, Mr. President, to the 
calm and deliberate consideration of the majority of 
the Senate, are you ready to pronounce, in the face of 
this enlightened community, for all time to come, and 
whoever may happen to be President, that the Senate 
dare not, in language the most inoffensive and respect- 
ful, remonstrate against any executive usurpation, 
whatever may be its degree or danger ? For one I will 
not ; I cannot. I believe the resolution of March, 
1834, to have been true ; and that it was competent 
to the Senate to proclaim the truth. And I solemnly 
believe that the Senate would have been culpably 
neglectful of its duty to itself, to the Constitution 
and to the country, if it had not announced the 
truth." 

He argued, too, conclusively, by reference to the 

experience of other legislative bodies, that a journal 

is a record of proceedings and that nothing which 

has taken place can be properly or truthfully de- 

1 Meigs, Life of Benton, p. 230 et seq. 



240 HENRY CLAY 

clared Dot to have taken place. " Are you not only 
destitute of all authority," he asked, "but posi- 
tively forbidden to do what the expunging resolu- 
tion proposes? The injunction of the Constitution 
to keep a journal of our proceedings is clear, ex- 
press and emphatic. . . . But I would ask if 
there were no constitutional requirement to keep a 
journal, what constitutional right has the Senate 
of this Congress to pass in judgment upon the Sen- 
ate of another Congress, and to expunge from its 
journal a deliberate act there recorded? Can an 
unconstitutional act of that Senate, supposing it to 
be so, justify you in performing another unconstitu- 
tional act?" 

It was a "dark deed," a "foul deed," of him who 
had come to exercise "uncontrolled the power of 
the state." " In one hand he holds the purse and 
in the other brandishes the sword of the country. 
Myriads of dependents and partisans, scattered over 
the land, are ever ready to sing hosannas to him, 
and to laud to the skies whatever he does. He has 
swept over the government, during the last eight 
years, like a tropical tornado. . . . What ob- 
ject of his ambition is unsatisfied? When disabled 
from age any longer to hold the sceptre of power, he 
designates his successor and transmits it to his fa- 
vorite. What more does he want ? Must we blot, 
deface and mutilate the records of the country to 
punish the presumptuousness of expressing an 
opinion contrary to his own?" 

" Can yoiAnake that not to be which has been ? " 
Clay continued in one of his finest bursts. "Can 
you eradicate from memory and from history the 



THE WAE AGAINST JACKSON 241 

fact that in March, 1831, a majority of the Senate 
of the United States passed the resolution which ex- 
cites your enmity ? Is it jour vain and wicked ob- 
ject to arrogate to yourselves that power of annihi- 
lating the past which has been denied to Omnipo- 
tence itself? Do you intend to thrust your hands 
into our hearts, and pluck out the deeply rooted 
convictions which are there ? Or is it your design 
merely to stigmatize us? You cannot stigmatize 
us : 



u c 



Ne'er yet did base dishonor blur our name.' 



Standing securely upon our conscious rectitude 
and bearing aloft the shield of the Constitution of 
our country, your puny efforts are impotent, and 
we defy all your power. Put the majority of 1834 
in one scale, and that by which this expunging 
resolution is to be carried in the other, and let truth 
and justice, in Heaven above and on the earth be- 
low, and liberty and patriotism decide the pre- 
ponderance. 7 ' ' 

When the last gun had thundered, there were 
calls for a vote. It was then near midnight. The 
galleries were tightly packed with onlookers, while 
masses of people were wedged into the lobbies, and 
even invaded the floor itself. Benton, or his friends, 
pretended to think that he was in danger of his life. 
The truth is that the Jackson regime had bred such 
manners among the people that guns and bludgeons 
were in everyday use. The entire spirit of society, 
no less than that of the government, had been 
altered by one extraordinary man who had made 
1 Colton, Vol. VI, pp. 58-59. 



242 HENKY CLAY 

himself a kind of monarch over whom was thrown, 
curiously enough, a mantle of democracy. After 
the vote was taken and the Jackson men had won 
by twenty- four ayes to nineteen noes, Benton in- 
sisted that the black lines should be drawn around 
the resolution at once. There were groans and 
hisses in a portion of the galleries immediately 
above the head of the senator from Missouri. The 
chair was about to have them cleared when Benton, 
in his most dramatic manner, objected. He wished 
only the guilty to suffer ; he pointed to them, he 
saw them up there. They were the "bank ruf- 
fians," " subaltern wretches" he later called them. 1 
They could no longer insult the Senate as in other 
days. They must be seized by the sergeant-at-arms 
and brought to the bar. 

Clay had said that if Jackson were "really the 
hero" which his friends represented him to be, he 
would "reject with scorn and contempt, as un- 
worthy of his fame, your black scratches and your 
baby lines in the fair records of his country." He, 
however, did nothing of the kind. He invited the 
" expungers " and their wives to a fine dinner. He 
met the company, but was too sick to sit at the 
table with them, his place being taken by Benton, 
the "head expunger," as the latter not inappro- 
priately describes himself, who was as happy as 
his chief. "That expurgation," Benton exclaims 
in his Thirty Years 1 View, 2 "it was the ' crowning 
mercy ? of his civil— as New Orleans had been of his 
military — life." s 

1 Thirty Years' View, Vol. I, p. 731. 

2 Ibid. 3 Meigs, pp. 239-241. 



THE WAE AGAINST JACKSON 243 

day felt no quickening of his dejected spirits by 
reason of this act. " I shall hail with the greatest 
pleasure the occurrence of circumstances which will 
admit of my resignation without dishonor to my- 
self," he wrote to a friend just after the expunging 
resolution was passed. "The Senate is no longer a 
place for a decent man." To Brooke he wrote on 
February 10, 1837 : " You congratulate me on my 
acceptance of the new appointment recently conferred 
upon me by the Senate. I think you ought to have 
condoled and sympathized with me, because by the 
force of circumstances I was constrained to remain in 
a body in the humiliated condition in which the 
Senate now is. I shall escape from it as soon as 
I decently can, with the same pleasure that one 
would fly from a charnel house. ... In the 
month of March the Cumberland route offers ad- 
vantages so superior to any other that I must follow 
it to Kentucky. Would to God it w T ere for the last 
time!" 1 

But there were some compensations. Assurances 
came to him of the continued love and admiration 
of those whose opinions were worthy to be prized. 
Chancellor Kent wrote from New York on February 
20, 1837: "My sympathies, and judgment, and 
confidence, and patriotism, and grief, and indigna- 
tion are with you in every point, aud if I was in 
Washington, I would go directly up to you, and 
give your hand the hearty shake of sympathetic 
feeling. You have vindicated the resolution with 
irresistible force, and damned the other to everlast- 
ing fame." 

1 Private Correspondence, pp. 410-411. 



CHAPTER X 

" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO " 

The business world had been bearing up in a 
creditable way under the uncertainty and disturb- 
ance created by the unusual financial policies of 
Jackson, and his eight years ended amid much 
popular acclamation. There was still some degree 
of prosperity when Van Buren was inaugurated. 
Panic, however, lay just ahead. The way had been 
prepared for sweeping wreck. Whim and igno- 
rance had been supreme in the management of the 
public finances, and the penalty would fall upon the 
entire country with swift justice. 

Apart from the destruction of the bank, and all 
the regular agencies of credit which it had estab- 
lished and under which business proceeded safely— 
in itself suificient to cause a panic,— there was a 
surplus distribution scheme of mischievous tenden- 
cies. For this Clay could not escape some responsi- 
bility, though it could be truthfully said that its 
enactment at such a time, in such a form, was not 
of his choice. It was nevertheless one feature of his 
public land bill to distribute the proceeds of the 
sales among the states for local uses, an idea 
not very different from that at the basis of a meas- 
ure which met the favor of the administration, 
as well as of the Whigs, and passed Congress in the 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLEB, TOO'' 245 

session of 1835-1836. l It provided that the surplus 
(reserving $5,000,000), concerning which there was a 
great ado, especially since it was to be carried about 
the country to be placed in favorite banks for the 
advantage of the dominant political party, should 
be ' ' deposited ' ' with the several states, according 
to their representation in Congress. Payment was 
to be made in four quarterly instalments, beginning 
on January 1, 1837. The law contemplated a return 
of the money at the call of Congress, but it was 
generally understood to be, as it proved, an out- 
right gift. 

One powerful motive with Clay and the Whigs, 
in their support of this plan, was a desire to get the 
public money out of the hands of the administration. 
It was, or could be made, they said, a dangerous 
engine to perpetuate the power of the party in office. 
The surplus, which had been so much on the minds 
of those who had opposed Clay's protective system 
during the recent discussions of the tariff question, 
still refused to grow less. It reached a total of 
more than $40,000,000 in 1836, and a mixture of 
considerations, including a curious deference to the 
state-rights view of the Union, impelled Congress 
to vote for the distribution scheme. 

As the 1st of January, 1837, the time for the first 
payment, approached, the banks in all parts of the 
country, which held government deposits, began to 
look about them for means to meet the call. The 
money was in the hands of institutions, a number of 
them essentially weak. The prize of government 
deposits had led to the establishment of many state 
1 June 23, 1836, Statutes at Large, p. 52. 



246 HENRY CLAY 

bauks which hoped to receive a share of these easy 
favors. They issued their paper money, lent out 
their credit, encouraged speculation. Now that the 
government needed the funds which had led the 
way to this season of reckless plenty, loans must be 
called in and further accommodations to borrowers 
denied. Jackson made the situation no better by 
a characteristic act of his own, his "specie circular." 
The sales of land to speculators were largely for the 
notes of state banks, in some cases of doubtful 
solvency. He wished Congress to provide that only 
gold and silver coin should be received at the land- 
offices, and failing to get such legislation he, in 
July, 1836, issued an order upon his own responsi- 
bility. This measure created a sudden demand for 
specie for exchanges in which paper money had 
hitherto been the medium. Coin was drawn from 
the East to the West, so that it might be paid to the 
government through the land-offices. The whole 
financial fabric was under stress and strain, and that 
it fell could have surprised no student of the polit- 
ical and economic situation. 

The first instalment of $9,367,000, due on Jan- 
uary 1, 1837, was successfully transferred from the 
deposit banks to the states. The second was 
paid, though not without difficulty, on April 1st. 
When the time for the third payment arrived, in 
July, the banks had broken down and business of 
all kinds, financial and mercantile, suffered general 
collapse. Fortunes in cotton, tobacco and iron, as 
well as in Western land, disappeared in a night. 
Bankruptcy stared all parts of the country in the 
face, and tens of thousands of wage-workers were 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 247 



thrown into the streets. There was a general sus- 
pension of specie payments, and Van Buren saw 
that he had come into a legacy which was to be of 
far less value and honor than he had hoped. Euin 
was made the wilder by the uses to which the states 
applied the money they had received. They at 
once embarked upon ill-considered schemes of pub- 
lic works and increased the whirl of speculative 
excitement, which now ended in a general crash. 

The business community demanded immediate 
relief. It asked the President to rescind the specie 
circular. This he declined to do, but he was com- 
pelled to yield to the request for a special session of 
Congress. It was called for September 4, 1837. So 
rapid was the decliue in the national resources from 
taxation and the sales of land, that instead of a 
surplus, the government was now confronted with a 
deficit. Van Buren' s message to Cougress, when it 
convened, was full of clear and direct statements as 
to the cause of the economic distress. He frankly 
confessed that the policy of depositing the public 
money in state banks was a mistake, but instead of 
turning again to a national bank, which was the 
resource of Clay and the Whigs, he recommended 
the independent treasury system. The distribution 
of the fourth instalment of the surplus of the states, 
he said, should be withheld, since there was now no 
surplus and the regular needs of the government 
must be met by the creation of debt — the issue of 
treasury notes. 

Clay was in his place in the Senate, ready to con- 
duct a vigorous and able opposition. His defense 
of his policies was brilliant and convincing. The 



248 HENEY CLAY 

President had said that the troubles of the country 
arose from overactiou and overtrading. " It would 
be quite as correct and just, in the instance of a 
homicide perpetrated by the discharge of a gun," 
said Mr. Clay, ' ' to allege that the leaden ball, and 
not the man who leveled the piece, was responsible 
for the murder. The true inquiry is, How came 
that excessive overtrading, and those extensive 
bank facilities which the message describes? Were 
they not the necessary and immediate consequences 
of the overthrow of the bank, and the removal from 
its custody of the public deposits'?" The surplus 
had arisen, he asserted, from the sales of the public 
lands, not from the tariff, as had been alleged by 
Mr. Calhoun and those who had taken a posi- 
tion hostile to the protective system. "If the land 
bill had been allowed to go into operation," he con- 
tinued, " it would have distributed generally and 
regularly among the several states the proceeds of 
the public lands, as they would have been received 
from time to time. They would have returned back 
in small streams, similar to those by which they 
have been collected, animating and improving and 
fructifying the whole country. ' ' There would then 
have been no surplus ; no removal of the deposits ; 
no accumulation in the state banks of great sums of 
money seeking mischief to do. 

Mr. Clay had been appealed to for some " healing 
measure." He could suggest none but a national 
bank. ' l The great want of the country is a general 
and uniform currency and a point of union, a senti- 
nel, a regulator of the issues of the local banks." 
The sub-treasury system he conceived to be full of 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 249 

evils. It was likely to prove insecure. It opened 
a way to favoritism. It would fearfully increase 
executive patronage. All, or nearly all, the objec- 
tions resolved themselves into an expression of dis- 
trust of the Jackson party in the administration of 
this great new power, with ringing allusions to the 
" perilous union of the purse and the sword," and 
an effective appeal to the lessons of English history. 
In new language, with fresh energy and eloquence, 
he arraigned the usurpations of Jackson with few 
expressions of confidence of disavowal or change 
in Van Buren, who came into office with the inten- 
tion of following " in the very footsteps of his pred- 



ecessor." 



Clay had his remedy and it was a national bank. 
Then why did he not propose it at once? This 
course on his part he knew would be futile, with 
Congress constituted as it then was. "I do not 
desire to force upon the Senate," he said with dig- 
nity, "or upon the country against its will, if I 
could, my opinion, however sincerely or strongly 
entertained. If a national bank be established, its 
stability and its utility will depend upon the gen- 
eral conviction which is felt of its necessity. And 
until such a conviction is deeply impressed upon 
the people and clearly manifested by them, it would, 
in my judgment, be unwise even to propose a bank.' 1 
He could perceive "no remedy but such as is in the 
hands of the people themselves." 

At the special session the sub-treasury bill passed 
the Senate but it failed in the House. When Con- 
gress convened in its regular session in December, 
the discussion was contiuued and on February 19, 



250 HENRY CLAY 

1838, Clay developed his thesis regarding the inde- 
pendent treasury system. He spoke this time at 
great length, with deeper earnestness, and obviously 
with more care. The result was an oration which, 
if in some ways it seems not to accord with our later 
experience with the branch treasuries, was pro- 
foundly interesting to those who heard it, and may be 
read with like interest at this day. Despite its long 
period of service, no competent judge of financial 
matters can claim perfection for the sub- treasury 
scheme, and many of its shortcomings were clearly 
foreseen and stated by Mr. Clay. His main em- 
ployment, however, was to identify the plan with 
Andrew Jackson's administration ; in this regard 
the speech is less convincing, and of less value to- 
day than it would otherwise have been. It is not 
at all certain that Jackson from the beginning had 
in view this kind of a " government bank," as Clay 
persisted in calling a treasury and its branches 
which should be in charge of all the fiscal opera- 
tions of the government, earlier entrusted to a semi- 
independent institution that for forty years had so 
successfully attended to them in Philadelphia. Clay 
tried to prove it from the President's messages and 
did so to his own complete satisfaction. It is rather 
to be believed that Jackson's antipathy to the Bauk 
of the United States in the first place was acci- 
dental ; that his pursuit of it was a matter of whim 
and passion ; and that to give him credit for having 
in view so good or suitable a system as the sub- 
treasury plan, is an undeserved compliment to his 
acumen as a public man. 

Clay seriously argued, however, at very consider- 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 251 

able length that Jackson had overthrown the United 
States Bank in favor of the state banks and was now 
himself, through his heirs in the business of govern- 
ment, engaged in the work of destroying these tem- 
porary objects of his favor, while all the time hav- 
ing in prospect a great central bank which would 
be under the absolute domination of the President. 
He opened his address with thanks to God — "that 
He has prolonged my life, until the present time, to 
enable me to exert myself in the service of my coun- 
try against a project far transcending in pernicious 
tendency any that I have ever had occasion to con- 
sider. ' ' 

Though there will seem to be some exaggeration 
in this statement, it is thus that Clay girded himself 
for what became a most powerful and impressive 
speech. He himself believed it, and this circum- 
stance gave inspiration to his thought, strength to 
his utterance and conviction to the minds of his 
auditors. Jackson's " egotism aud vanity," said 
Clay, at one point in the speech, "prompted him to 
subject everything to his will ; to change, to remold 
and retouch everything." He had the same sort of 
ambition which animated Napoleon and induced 
him "to impress his name upon everything in 
France." 

"When I was in Paris," said Clay with telling 
effect, " the sculptors were busily engaged chiseling 
out the famous 'N,' so odious to the Bourbon line, 
which had been conspicuously carved on the palace 
of the Tuileries, and on other public edifices and 
monuments in the proud capital of France. When, 
Mr. President, shall we see effaced all traces of the 



252 HENKY CLAY 

ravages committed by the administratioD of Andrew 
Jackson? Society has been uprooted, virtue pun- 
ished, vice rewarded and talents and intellectual 
endowments despised ; brutality, vulgarism and 
loco-focoism upheld, cherished and countenanced. 
Ages will roll around before the moral and political 
ravages which have been committed will, I fear, 
cease to be discernible. " 

He reviewed the history of his personal acquaint- 
ance with Jackson and referred to the old "bargain 
and corruption" cry which arose in 1825. Im- 
mediately after he had announced his determination 
to vote for John Quincy Adams " a rancorous war 
was commenced against me and all the barking dogs 
let loose upon me. ... I gave the vote, which 
in the contingency that happened I told my col- 
league [Mr. Crittenden] who sits before me, prior 
to my departure from Kentucky in November, 1824, 
and told others that I should give. . . . But I 
thank my God that I stand here firm and erect, un- 
bent, unbroken, unsubdued, unawed, ready to de- 
nounce the mischievous measures of his administra- 
tion, and ready to denounce this, its legitimate 
offspring, the most pernicious of them all." 

" His administration," Clay continued, the vision 
unfolding as he proceeded, " consisted of a succes- 
sion of astounding measures which fell on the public 
ear like repeated bursts of loud and appalling thun- 
der. Before the reverberations of one peal had 
ceased another and another came, louder and louder, 
and more terrifying. Or rather it was like a vol- 
canic mountain, emitting frightful eruptions of 
burning lava. Before one was cold and crusted j 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 253 

before the voices of the inhabitants of buried vil- 
lages and cities were hushed in eternal silence, an- 
other more desolating was vomited forth, extending 
wider and wider the circle of death and destruction." 
Though the speech was marked by no little 
knowledge of financial subjects, it was rendered 
most notable perhaps by its allusions to Calhoun, 
who was now drawing off 1 from the alliance which 
he had formed with the Whigs for the purpose of 
combating the policies of Andrew Jackson, and 
which had been more or less faithfully maintained 
since Clay had arranged the Compromise of 1833. 
This was the beginning of an oratorical tourney 
which was destined to attract more attention than 
any since the Webster-Hayne debates, and it found 
Clay aggressive and fit. He outstripped Webster. 
He was the unquestioned leader of the Whig party 
and Calhoun recognized his position. The South 
Carolinian was asked in 1832 what were his relative 
views of Webster and Clay. He said : " Mr. Web- 
ster will never be President. He lacks the qualifi- 
cations of a leader ; he has no faith in his own 
convictions ; he can never be the head of a party. 
Though very superior in intellect to Mr. Clay, he 
lacks his moral courage and his strong convictions. 
Hence, Mr. Clay will always be the head of the 
party and Mr. Webster will follow." 2 

Calhoun in a public letter had formally taken 
leave of his old associates, saying that he was not 
willing to be absorbed by an organization whose 

1 " At this critical moment the senator left us ; he left us foi 
the purpose of preventing the success of the common cause." 

2 Hunt, Calhoun, p. 223. 



254 HENKY CLAY 

principles were found to be " so opposite to ours 
and so dangerous to our institutions as well as op 
pressive to us" ; and on February 15th, in a speech 
in the Senate, came out emphatically in favor of the 
sub-treasury bill. 

Clay now went after Calhoun with the graceful 
movements which always characterized him, but 
unpityingly. He plunged the rapier under the 
vizor, making his victim reel with auger and pain. 
The "drawer" of the sub-treasury bill was "the 
distinguished gentleman in the White House" ; the 
" endorser" was "the distinguished senator from 
South Carolina." The speaker continued : 

"What the drawer thinks of the endorser, his 
cautious reserve and stifled enmity prevent us from 
knowing. But the frankness of the endorser has 
not left us in the same ignorance with respect to the 
opinion of the drawer. He has often expressed it 
upon the floor of the Senate. On an occasion not 
very distant, denying him any of the nobler quali- 
ties of the royal beast of the forest, he attributed to 
him those which belong to the most crafty, most 
skulking and one of the meanest of the quadruped 
tribe." 1 

He told how the alliance had been formed between 
South Carolina and the Whigs " to arrest the prog- 
ress of corruption ; to rebuke usurpation and to 
drive the Goths and Vandals from the Capitol." 
Their object was about to be accomplished when 
Calhoun deserted them. " He took up his musket, 
knapsack and shot-pouch, and joined the other 
party. He went horse, foot and dragoon, and he 
1 " The fox of Kinderhook." 



' « TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 255 

himself composed the whole corps. . . . We 
did no wrong to the distinguished senator from 
South Carolina. On the contrary we respected him, 
confided in his great and acknowledged ability, his 
uncommon genius, his extensive experience, his 
supposed patriotism ; above all we confided in his 
stern and inflexible fidelity. Nevertheless, he left 
us and joined our common opponents, distrusting 
and distrusted. He left us, as he tells us in his 
Edgefield letter, because the victory which our com- 
mon arms were about to achieve was not to inure to 
him and his party, but exclusively to the benefit of 
his allies and their cause. I thought that actuated 
by patriotism, that noblest of human virtues, we 
had been contending together for our common coun- 
try, for her violated rights, her threatened liberties, 
her prostrate constitution. Never did I suppose 
that personal or party considerations entered into 
our views. Whether if victory shall ever again be 
about to perch upon the standard of the spoils party 
(the denomination which the senator from South 
Carolina has so often given to his present allies) he 
will not feel himself constrained by the principles 
on which he has acted, to leave them, because it 
may not inure to the benefit of himself and his 
party, I leave to be adjusted between themselves." 

Continuing, Mr. Clay said that he had found the 
speech of the senator from South Carolina, delivered 
four days before, on February 15th, " plausible, in- 
genious, abstract, metaphysical and generalizing." 
It did not appear to him (Clay) " to be adapted to 
the bosoms and business of human life. It was 
aerial and not very high up in the air, Mr. Presi- 



256 HENRY CLAY 

dent, either.'' The closing passages were an en- 
treaty to his fellow senators in his most eloquent 
vein. He pointed to the English experience with a 
bank, as good for us to-day as it was in 1838 : 

' ' I oppose to these imaginary terrors, the ex- 
ample deducible from English history. There a 
bank has existed since the year 1694, and neither 
has the bank got possession of the government, nor 
the government of the bank. . . . Will the Sen- 
ate then bring upon itself the odium of passing this 
bill ? I implore it to forbear, forbear, forbear ! I 
appeal to the instructed senators. Is this govern- 
ment made for us, or for the people and the states 
whose agents we are? . . . I call upon all the 
senators ; let us bury deep and forever the charac- 
ter of the partisan, rise up patriots and statesmen, 
break the vile chains of party, throw the fragments 
to the winds, and feel the proud satisfaction that 
we have made but a small sacrifice to the paramount 
obligation which we owe to our common country." 

Under such charges Calhoun could not rest longer 
than March 10th 7 when the way opened for him to 
reply to Clay. He wrote once to his daughter : 
" Mr. Clay is very impudent and I expect to have 
a round with him." ' It is said that he stood with 
every muscle distended. His long hair seemed to 
be on end and his forehead was wet with perspi- 
ration. No other sound was heard in the Senate 
chamber while in shrill tones he poured out the 
floods of his denunciation. 2 The style of the dis- 
course was plain and cold compared with Clay's, 
which was lighted up always by the warm glow 

> Hunt, pp. 221-222. 9 Ibid., p. 222. 



"TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 257 

of his own temperament. Calhoun found Clay's 
speech to be " a premeditated and gratuitous at- 
tack " and he resented it vigorously. 

" The faculties of our minds," he said, " are the 
immediate gifts of our Creator for which we are no 
further responsible than for their proper cultiva- 
tion, according to our opportunities, and their 
proper application to control and regulate our ac- 
tions. . . . The critic must expect to be criti- 
cized, and he who points out the faults of others to 
have his own pointed out. I cannot retort on the 
senator the charge of being metaphysical. I cannot 
accuse him of possessing the powers of analysis and 
generalization, those higher faculties of the mind 
(called metaphysical by those who do not possess 
them) which decompose and resolve into their ele- 
ments the complex masses of ideas that exist in the 
world of mind, as chemistry does the bodies that 
surround us in the material world. . . . The 
absence of these higher qualities of mind is con- 
spicuous throughout the whole course of the sena- 
tor's public life. To this it may be traced, that he 
prefers the specious to the solid, and the plausible 
to the true. To the same cause, combined with an 
ardent temperament, it is owing that we ever find 
him mounted on some popular and favorite measure 
which he whips along, cheered by the shouts of the 
multitude and never dismounts till he has ridden it 
down. . . . It is the fault of his mind to seize 
on a few prominent and striking advantages, and 
to pursue them eagerly without looking to conse- 
quences." * 

' Works of Calhoun, Vol. Ill, pp. 274-275. 



258 HENKY CLAY 

These entertaining amenities between Clay and 
Calhoun gave zest to the debates of the Senate for 
the next two or three years. Each man in his char- 
acteristic way pursued the other relentlessly, Web- 
ster now and then interfering in the forensic duel 
and diverting Calhoun's attention in his own direc- 
tion. The people followed the contest with de- 
light. The excitement reached its height in the 
summer of 1839-1840 in the discussion of the plan 
which Calhoun offered in opposition to Clay's, for 
dealing with the public lands. He proposed that 
they be turned over to the states in which they were 
situated, "a donation," as Clay declared it to be 
" of upward of one hundred millions of acres of the 
common property of all the states of this Union to 
particular states." 

A running debate between the two men began on 
January 3, 1840. Clay made an effort to identify 
the bill with the administration, and to show that 
Calhoun, in advancing it, had the support of Van 
Buren. The South Carolinian said that such an in- 
quiry was an improper one in such a place. u Was 
it of no importance," Clay asked in reply, "that 
the distinguished senator had made his bow in 
court, kissed the hand of the monarch, was taken 
into favor and agreed henceforth to support his 
edicts? " This greatly enraged Calhoun who, while 
they were on the subject of agreements and under- 
standings, said he would allude to that one, now 
very famous, by which Clay had entered the cabinet 
of President Adams. Calhoun asserted bluntly 
that for two years past he had been supporting the 
leading measures of the Executive, a statement 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 259 

which Clay welcomed gladly, as he launched into 
another defense of himself against the " bargain" 
story of 1825. He recalled to Calhoun's mind the 
fact that he also had then favored Adams as against 
Jackson, and his constituents had approved it from 
that day to this, and would to eternity. History 
would ratify and approve it. Clay defied the sena- 
tor to make anything out of that part of his career 
if he could. He had been charged with being an 
advocate of compromise. So he had been, on a 
notable occasion, and no man should be more grate- 
ful for it than the senator from South Carolina. 
But for that Compromise, Mr. Clay was not at all 
certain that he would now have the honor to meet 
the senator face to face in this national Capitol. 
Mr. Calhoun presented himself as a defender of 
state rights. The bill under consideration was an 
attempt to strip and rob seventeen states of this 
Union of their property, and assign it over to some 
eight or nine of the states. If this were what the 
senator called vindicating the rights of the states, 
Mr. Clay l ' prayed God to deliver the country from 
all such rights, and all such advocates." 

How Calhoun would reply every one was curious 
to know. He chose to turn to the Compromise of 
1833 for which he felt no gratitude toward Mr. Clay. 
The obligation was on the other side. As the sena- 
tor himself had alluded to the matter, he was bound 
to explain what might otherwise be left in oblivion. 
Clay was compelled to compromise in order to save 
himself. Events had placed him "flat on his back," 
and no other way was open to him. The senator 
was left "in the most hopeless position," Calhoun 



,--■ 



260 HEJSTEY CLAY 

continued, u with no more weight with his former 
partisans than this sheet of paper" (the speaker 
raised one from his desk). 

When Calhoun had finished, Clay again rose, 
"sorry to be obliged to prolong the discussion." 
The senator had said that, " I was flat on my back 
and that he was my master," exclaimed Mr. Clay 
amid much excitement, advancing down the aisle 
directly in front of Calhoun. He pointed his quiver- 
ing finger at his opponent and repeated in tones in 
which were concentrated the utmost scorn and de- 
fiance, "He, my master!" "He, my master!" 
he said again in louder tones with his finger still 
pointed at Calhoun, and retreating backward with 
an air indicating the greatest abhorrence. "He, 
my master ! " he repeated a third time, raising his 
voice to a yet higher key, while he continued his 
backward movement to the very lobby. Then sud- 
denly changing his voice from a trumpet's strength 
almost to a whisper, which was audible nevertheless 
in every corner of the Senate chamber, he added, 
"Sir, I would not own him as a slave." 

There was a hush of breathless silence, followed 
in a moment by a great outburst of applause which 
nearly caused the chair to expel the spectators from 
the galleries. 1 

Thus the debate proceeded, with perhaps no im- 
mediate purpose but to exhibit the brilliant quali- 
ties of mind of two senators of the United States and 
to amuse the country, though it more clearly defined 
party relations and brought the sectional difference 

1 William Mathews, Orators and Oratory ; Congressional Globe, 
1839-1840, pp. 96-97. 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 261 

one step nearer the end. The sub-treasury bill, 
which had been the occasion of Calhoun's departure 
from Clay, and his affiliation with Van Buren, in 
order to form that slavery -defending Democratic 
party, which was the South' s hope until the Civil 
War, had not passed at the special session of 1838. 
The administration continued to press it, however, 
and at last it became a law, Clay opposing it with 
all his abilities to the end. He spoke again on the 
subject at much length and with great care on Janu- 
ary 20, 1840, just before the final vote, which was 
twenty-four to eighteen in the Senate and 124 to 107 
in the House. He did not abate anything of his 
faith in a United States Bank. That, he said, was 
the remedy, not this great " government bank, "as he 
continued to denominate the independent treasury, 
with large numbers of employees holding their of- 
fices "at the pleasure and mercy of the President." 
" There scarcely remains any power in this gov- 
ernment," he said in concluding his speech, "but 
that of the President. He suggests, originates, con- 
trols, checks everything. The insatiable spirit of 
the Stuarts for power and prerogative was brought 
upon our American throne on the 4th of March, 
1829. It came under all the usual false and hypo- 
critical pretenses and disguises of love of the people, 
desire of reform, and diffidence of power. The 
Scotch dynasty still continues. We have had 
Charles the First and now we have Charles the 
Second. But I again thank God that our deliver- 
ance is not distant, and that on the 4th of March, 
1841, a great and glorious revolution without blood, 
and without convulsion will be achieved." 



262 HENEY CLAY 

This was Clay's desire as well as his belief, and 
the party alignments for another presidential con- 
test were forming rapidly. It is not to be denied 
that he thought and hoped he would this time be 
the successful candidate. As the year approached, 
he followed the course of political events in the 
various states through his friends, sanguinely, 
though at times also anxiously. Webster too had 
designs upon the presidency, and he was a leader 
who in his own section had great strength. General 
Harrison, the "old hero" of Tippecanoe, had led 
the poll among the Whig candidates in 1836, and he 
still seemed to many a very available figure for 
a popular campaign. On January 28, 1839, Clay 
wrote to Judge Brooke from the Senate chamber : 
"The spirits of my friends are again revived, and 
they think that they see, in various quarters, indi- 
cations of the final result which their partiality 
prompts them to desire. I believe myself that the 
current in my favor, which for the moment ap- 
peared to be impeded, will again burst forward with 
accumulated strength." ! 

In the summer of 1839, Mr. Clay made another 
tour of the Eastern states. Upon his visit to New 
York, which he approached in the steamer James 
Madison, he was met at the wharf in Greenwich by 
immense crowds, and placed in an open barouche, 
preceded by a band of music and followed by car- 
riages containing prominent citizens who had come 
to escort him into the city. His entire way to the 
Astor House, a distance of three miles, was lined 
with people who acclaimed him with great enthu- 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 439. 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 263 

siasin. Even the housetops were tilled with on- 
lookers ; flags and banners were everywhere ; bands 
stationed in the street played as he passed ; ladies 
waved their handkerchiefs, and the whole commu- 
nity seemed to unite to honor him. One of his ad- 
mirers likened it to an u oriental pageant." * In- 
deed, for a long time now, whenever Clay went 
about the country, he was the mark of just such 
demonstrations of popular love ; sometimes logs were 
rolled upon the railway track at stations which he 
passed upon his journeys and the crowds refused to 
remove them until Clay had come out to make a 
speech. Thus, it would seem, he was not to be 
blamed for thinking that he would be his party's 
natural choice for the nomination. 

As for the canvass of 1832, the candidate was to 
be named in a national convention. The meeting 
of delegates was to be held in Harrisburg early in 
December, 1839. Clay's friends believed that his 
prospects were of the best, and it was a matter for 
surprise as well as great chagrin, when they found 
that arrangements had been made which would re- 
sult in their complete undoing. A situation un- 
favorable to Clay seems to have been brought about 
mainly by the disaffection of Webster's friends, and 
the belief of some party managers, principally in 
New York, that he was a defeated candidate witli 
whom it would be difficult to make a successful 
fight. As for the first consideration — that bearing 
upon Webster's course, when he, foreseeing his own 
defeat, withdrew from the contest — it should not 
have been unexpected. ' ' It seems to be one of the 

1 Mallory, Vol. I, p. 184. 



264 HENRY CLAY 

weaknesses of great men in the competition for the 
highest honors," says Mr. Schurz, "to prefer com- 
paratively small men to one another." 

In addition to this the Whig party in New York, 
like the Jackson party in that state, had developed 
some astute political manipulators. They had an 
almost modern prescience regarding their own inter- 
ests. Their point of view was strange to Mr. Clay 
and his friends who lived among large questions, 
which bore directly on the public welfare. The 
chief of these was Thurlow Weed, an editor of 
Albany, who was now coming forward as apolitical 
influence, and who from this time on led a tolerably 
triumphant career as a wire-puller, until under the 
banner of William H. Seward he met the Lincoln 
men at Chicago in 1860. Clay had learned some- 
thing of the attitude of Weed at Saratoga Springs, 
while on his New York visit, during the summer. 
Thither the leader went with the purpose, if pos- 
sible, of inducing Clay to withdraw from the con- 
test. He had two ends in view, he himself says — to 
save Clay, to whom he was "warmly attached," 
the mortification of defeat, and to prepare the way 
for the victory of the Whig party, which now had 
an opportunity to achieve its first national success. 
The conversations continued off and on for two 
days, Mr. Clay's bearing being always courteous 
and kind. He said that he could not " in view of 
the earnest wishes of troops of his friends through- 
out the Union refuse them the use of his name," but 
he would " cheerfully and heartily acquiesce " in the 
decision of the convention, whatever it might be. 1 

1 Weed, Autobiography, Vol. I, p.'481. 






" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER-, TOO" 265 

The canvass developed "great zeal and una- 
nimity" in favor of Mr. Clay in New York City 
and the river counties, but in other portions of the 
state a sentiment existed favorable to General Har- 
rison and General Scott, the latter being introduced 
into the situation for no other purpose than to effect 
the object in view, — the defeat of the candidate who 
was in reality the choice of a vast majority of the 
Whigs of the state. Scott's nomination seen to be 
impossible, the delegates . would be turned over to 
Harrison. Public opinion was subjected to a great 
amount of manipulation, 1 and when the New York- 
ers were in place, there were twenty for Scott, ten 
for Clay and two for Harrison. Weed very frankly 
tells of his next step, which was to open negotia- 
tions with some of the Webster men, with whom 
he formed an agreement. Although Clay was 
seen to have a "decided plurality" in the con- 
vention, Weed, ostensibly acting on the theory 
that Clay could not carry New York and Penn- 
sylvania, succeeded in nominating another can- 
didate. 

Clay foresaw the result. He wrote to General 
Combs on December 3d, just before the convention 
met. He had understood, he said, that eight or 
nine- tenths of the Whigs of New York preferred 
him to other candidates, yet a nomination was to 
be made in conformity to the wishes of one or two- 
tenths. He desired to know whether it was not 
easier to bring over one or two-tenths to eight or 
nine-tenths than to do the opposite thing. 2 Neither 

1 Schnrz, Vol. II, p. 177. 

2 Private Correspondence, p. 142. 



266 HEXRY CLAY 

Harrison nor Scott 1 seems to have thought himself 
a suitable candidate for the presidency, especially 
as a rival to Clay, but they were all pawns in the 
hands of a few men who had lately entered the po- 
litical arena in America, to change the course of 
history from that which it would have taken, if left 
free to move along the natural lines it had followed be- 
fore Jackson's corrupting advent into our public life. 
Even yet Weed and his friends were not suffi- 



1 A letter in possession of Mrs. Thomas H. Clay of Lexington, 
Ky., written by General Scott to Henry Clay from Utica, N. Y., 
on February 5, 1839, says : " . . . Having recently passed 
rapidly through many of the states (on public duty) I have been 
approached by persons, of more or less consideration, almost 
everywhere, who have tendered me assurances of eventual sup- 
port for the office of President at the next election. Those as- 
surances have come from the friends of yourself, of General Har- 
rison, Mr. Webster and Mr. Van Buren, respectively. In al- 
most every case it was evident that the individual had some 
doubt of the success of his own favorite candidate, and only 
looked to me as his second choice. I made one general reply to 
all and each, — 'that I was no politician and could not claim 
the high distinction of being a statesman ; that I was absolutely 
indifferent whether I ever reached the office of President ; that 
I made no pretensions to it, and that there were already presi- 
dential candidates enough before the public without the addi- 
tion of my name.' To the Whigs, I made the further declara- 
tion, — 'that it ought not to be doubted that the convention 
they were to hold would reduce the number of their candidates 
to one — whom all would cordially support,' and to the support- 
ers of Mr. Van Buren, I further said, — ' that, in my bosom, I 
had had the misfortune to condemn almost every leading meas- 
ure of the late and present administrations, and at least seven 
in every ten appointments which the two had made.' 

" Being more strongly urged by some leading "Whigs than by 
the many alluded to above, and who seemed to think that the 
final battle would be fought the next year, I replied, ' You 
ought not to despair of success with the one candidate who may 
he duly nominated by the convention ; — should he, however, he 
defeated, I admit that your case will then become rather des- 
perate ; it will still be your duty to renew the contest and 
should you then want a leader of the forlorn hope, and a better 



"TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 267 

ciently certain of the result to allow the convention to 
go its own way. A resolution was introduced and 
passed, authorizing each state delegation to appoint 
a committee of three to "receive the views and 
opinions of that delegation, and communicate the 
same to the assembled committees of all the delega- 
tions." Each delegation should for itself ballot for 
a presidential candidate and report the result back 
to the general committee through its committee of 
three. This scheme worked admirably. There was 
no opportunity for Clay's friends to nominate him 
in open meeting, and to carry him through by 
storm. Nevertheless, on the first ballot Clay re- 
ceived 102 votes, as against ninety-one for Harrison 
and fifty-seven for Scott. The latter was eliminated 
at the right time, in accordance with the plan of the 
managers, and on the final ballot there were 148 
votes for Harrison, ninety for Clay and sixteen for 
Scott. 

be not disclosed in time, you may reckon upon me for that 
service — with a possibility of success— upon the principle (the 
nation having been made rabid by one military chieftain) that 
" the hair of the dog is good for the bite." ' This may look like 
a present argument in favor of my friend General Harrison who, 
no doubt, and perhaps with good reason, thinks himself su- 
perior to me in general soldiership and in conflicts of the field, 
as he is as a politician and statesman ; but in quoting the adajie 
I was thinking of his being probably excluded from the next 
contest by the intervening convention, and of the fact that 
when out in the last he was not accepted— which perhaps is a 
conclusive argument against any quack remedy. Be all this 
as it may, you have in this, and the enclosed letter [to the Sec- 
retary of War] 'the head and front of my offending,' or inter- 
meddling, in politics, and I shall continue to observe the same 
course in the singleness of sincerity. ... In the mean- 
time, as always, I remain, my dear sir, with the highest respect 
and esteem, 

" Very truly yours, 

" Winfield Scott." 



268 HENRY CLAY 

It is not to be wondered at that the " disappoint- 
ment and vexation" of Clay's friends found " excited 
expression." ' The opposition had reason to fear 
that it had gone much too far. It delayed the final 
ballot twenty -four hours in order to effect a recon- 
ciliation, and while the nomination was made unani- 
mous, the motion could be offered and supported 
with little grace. It was clear enough now that 
nothing would do except to nominate a candidate for 
Vice-President, drawn from Clay's immediate circle 
of friends. But none who was suitable could be 
found. B. Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, rose and 
declined. John M. Clayton, of Delaware, refused 
the honor through his friend Reverdy Johnson. 
Finally ex-Governor John Tyler, of Virginia, who 
had voted for Clay in the convention and had at 
former times expressed admiration for the great 
Kentuckian and his policies, was named, and he 
accepted. Nevertheless, the ticket was not put for- 
ward without many misgivings, and it remained for 
Clay himself to give to it, in a spirit of true magna- 
nimity, that position in the sight of the Whigs of 
the country, which led to a sweeping victory after 
one of the hardest fought popular contests in the 
history of the presidency in America. 

As in 1831-1832 the work of the nominating con- 
vention was ratified a few months afterward by a 
national convention of "young men." This met in 
Baltimore, May 4, 1840. Clay addressed on the occa- 
sion an audience of more than 20,000, audit was a 
meeting in which enthusiasm was unconfiued. He 
spoke of the convention at Harrisburg. It was com- 

1 Weed, Vol. I, p. 482. 



< i TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 269 

posed he said of "as enlightened and as respectable 
a body of men as were ever assembled" in this 
country. "General Harrison was nominated, and 
cheerfully and without a moment's hesitation, I 
gave my hearty concurrence in that nomination. 
From that moment to the present I have had but 
one wish, one object, one desire, and that is to secure 
the election of the distinguished citizen who received 
the suffrages of the convention." He believed that 
there were twenty states which would give their 
votes to Harrison, a prediction that did not fall far 
short of a triumphant realization. 

Clay entered the campaign with energy, speaking 
at many places. The enthusiasm seemed to well up 
spontaneously all over the country, and was without 
previous, and perhaps later example. Log cabins 
with the " latch -string " hanging out, 'coons and 
hard cider — all indicative of Harrison's beginnings 
on the frontier — everywhere appeared to swell the 
excitement. Glee clubs were organized to sing cam- 
paign songs; companies of men and boys marched 
up and down the country shouting "Tippecanoe 
and Tyler, too." The "old hero" of New Orleans 
was not a circumstance to the "old hero" of an 
Indian war whom the Whigs had now groomed and 
brought out upon parade twenty-nine years after the 
event. 

One of Clay's most notable speeches was that de- 
livered at a Harrison meeting in Nashville ou 
August 17th, within arm's length of Jackson in the 
"Hermitage." Thousands of men and women at- 
tended to listen. The audience seemed as great as 
that in Baltimore and the marching men, the sing. 



270 HENRY CLAY 

ing, the shouting, the gay banners, the waving 
handkerchiefs made him think, as Clay had else- 
where said, that the nation was somehow "agitated 
upon its whole surface and at its lowest depths like 
the ocean when convulsed by a terrible storm." 
He came, he explained, to bring no hard words 
for General Jackson, their fellow citizen and friend. 
He was a " great chieftain ; he had fought bravely 
and well for his country.' 1 The speaker hoped that 
"he would live long and enjoy much happiness, and 
when he departed from this fleeting vale of tears, 
that he would enter into the abode of the just made 
perfect." 

Mr. Clay reached his climax when he spoke 
of his old friend, Felix Grundy, who from being a 
very eminent criminal lawyer had advanced to the 
United States Senate. In 1838 he had become Van 
Buren's Attorney-General, and was now engaged in 
trying to accomplish the reelection of his chief who 
had been renominated by the Democrats. "One 
of the pleasures which I promised myself in making 
this visit to your beautiful town," said Clay, "was 
to meet and talk over matters with him, but on my 
inquiry for him I learned that he was in East Ten- 
nessee making speeches in favor of the present ad- 
ministration. ' Ah ! ' said I, ' at his old occupation, 
— defending criminals ! ' " 

This was an immensely successful sally for a po- 
litical meeting. Those who were present say that 
the manner in which Clay made it "surpasses de- 
scription." His gestures and the style of his speak- 
ing, combined to produce a great effect. When the 
commotion subsided, he continued happily, "But 



u 



TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 271 



there is this difference between my distinguished 
friend's present and past defense of criminals. He 
is now defending great criminals of state not before 
a carefully packed jury, but before the free, en- 
lightened, virtuous and patriotic people ; and there- 
fore we may well hope that his present defense will 
not be attended with his hitherto unusual success." 1 

The campaign was one long frolic which could 
have but one result. Van Buren had fallen upon evil 
days. He was reaping the whirlwind after Jackson 
had sowed the wind. Some renewal of confidence 
had occurred in the business of the country since 
the panic of 1837, but banks began to fail again, 
and with ruin in every one's mind the party in 
power could easily be swept out of place. It could 
be said in truth of Harrison that he had no known 
opinions upon most of the grttc! issues which Clay 
and Webster had set up for the Whig party, but 
this was probably to his advantage. It was in any 
event an opposition party year, and it was an op- 
portunity lost to Clay, to the organization which he 
had created, and to the country which so sorely 
needed to be recalled to the sound principles of its 
earlier years when he was cheated out of his portion 
at Harrisburg. After all the states had been heard 
from, there were found to be 234 electoral votes 
from nineteen states for Harrison, and only sixty 
from seven states (New Hampshire, Virginia, South 
Carolina, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas) 
for Van Buren. 

Never had the Whig outlook been so propitious 
or the party hope of immediate achievement so 

1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 217. 



272 HEKRY CLAY 

great. The more, then, were the disappointment 
and chagrin when events conspired to prevent the 
reaping of any worthy harvest. Clay pressed the 
cause boldly in the last session of Congress of Van 
Buren's administration, beginning in December, 
1840, and ending March, 1841. He led a move- 
ment to repeal the sub-treasury law, though he 
knew it could not succeed until the results of the 
election should be seen in a new Congress. He was, 
however, a born parliamentarian ; he was made to 
shine in a legislative chamber ; it was his delight to 
call out an antagonist in debate and put him in the 
attitude of defense before the assembled multitude. 
The main point of his argument was that the coun- 
try had decreed the repeal of the measure at the 
recent elections. ' ' Gentlemen on the other side ' ' 
had said that the people had decided this or that, 
especially in regard to a Bank of the United States, 
and he wished them now to note the message of the 
nation on the subject of the sub-treasury scheme. 
He was taunted with being the leader of " a coon- 
skin, log-cabin party." Before going further, he 
would like to ask those who used these words in so 
much contempt, what kind of a party theirs must 
be "to be driven out of power by a party whose 
residence is a log cabin and whose covering is coon- 
skins" ? There was something wrong about it or 
the defeated party would never have met so hard a 
fate. 1 

Late in January he made another elaborate speech 
upon his land bill. He maintained throughout the 
session a triumphant air, which had better been a 

1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 22 et seq. 



44 TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO 11 273 



little subdued, especially in view of what was so soon 
to follow. But that was the nature of the man. It 
gave him joy to taunt the administration party 
which had been so decisively overthrown. He had 
the spirits of a schoolboy whose team had just van- 
quished an opponent on some athletic field. The 
merits of his scheme for the distribution of the pro- 
ceeds of the sales of public lands were again stated 
in a discourse which extended over two days, amid 
interpolations by other members, rejoinders, laugh- 
ter on the floor and in the galleries, and some of the 
horse-play borrowed from the stump from which all 
the senators had so recently come back. 

One passage at least deserves to be remembered, 
however, though later events prove how much over- 
drawn the prophecy was by the orator's hopeful 
imagination. The measure he believed would 
greatly tend to the perpetuity of the Union. " No 
section, no state," he exclaimed, v ' would ever be 
mad enough to break off from the Union and de- 
prive itself of the inestimable advantages which it 
secures. Although thirty or forty more new states 
should be admitted into this Union, this measure 
would cement them all fast together." An honor- 
able senator wished to witness a settlement at 
the mouth of the Oregon, "and he will probably 
be gratified at no distant day. Then will be seen 
members of Congress from the Pacific states scaling 
the Eocky Mountains, passing through the country 
of the grizzly bear, descending the turbid Missouri, 
entering the father of rivers, ascending the beautiful 
Ohio and coming to this Capitol to take their seats 
in its spacious and magnificent halls. Proud of the 



274 HENRY CLAY 

commission they bear, and happy to find themselves 
here in council with friends and brother country- 
men, enjoying the incalculable benefits of this great 
confederacy and, among them, their annual dis- 
tributive share of the issues of a nation's inher- 
itance, would even they, the remote people of the 
Pacific, ever desire to separate themselves from such 
a high and glorious destiny ? " 1 

Clay, not unnaturally, had the expectation of being 
the principal power behind the new President. He 
had been speaking as the party chief and this he 
was by common consent the country over. He was 
invited to become Secretary of State in the cabinet 
of General Harrison who visited " Ashland" on his 
way East ; but he chose to remain in the Senate as a 
field for greater service to the administration. 
Webster, who had been reserved for the Treasury 
Department, was then asked to take the post. The 
cabinet was made up largely of Clay's warm and 
devoted friends, though Harrison seemed early to 
fall under the influence of the petty politicians who 
had dominated the Harrisburg convention. They 
sought to have the new President believe that Clay 
was endeavoring to override him in appointments 
to office, and the development of national policies, 
a charge which deeply wounded the great Kentuck- 
ian. Herds of office-hunters poured into Washing- 
ton. Jackson had not only corrupted his own 
party ; he had also taken the virtue out of the 
other, and in the hour of victory there was a large 
demand for the spoils. With this unseemly exhi- 
bition Clay could consistently have nothing to do. 

1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 270. 



a 



TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 275 



He held aloof from it all with no wish in the tri- 
umph but to cause to prevail the measures which he 
had made his and his party's during the twelve 
years past. He said in a speech in his own " slashes 
of Hanover " while the campaign was in progress : 
"If we acted on the avowed and acknowledged 
principle of our opponents l that the spoils belong 
to the victors,' we should indeed be unworthy of 
the support of the people. No ! fellow citizens ; 
higher, nobler, more patriotic motives actuate the 
Whig party. Their object is the restoration of the 
Constitution, the preservation of liberty and rescue 
of the country." l 

It was a cause of disappointment, if not of auger, 
to Clay to be told by an entirely mediocre man, who 
by mere chance had come to the President's chair, 
as an exponent of what were his own principles and 
policies, that his advice bore the appearance of in- 
terference. "If to express freely my opinion as a 
citizen and as a senator in regard to public matters 
be dictation," he wrote to Harrison on March 15, 
1841, before leaving for "Ashland," "then I have 
dictated and not otherwise. There is but one alter- 
native which I could embrace, to prevent the exer- 
cise of this common right of freedom of opinion, and 
that is retirement to private life. That I am most 
desirous of, and if I do not promptly indulge the 
feeliug, it is because I entertain the hope — perhaps 
vain hope — that by remaining a little longer in the 
Senate, I may possibly render some service to the 
country to whose interests my life has been dedi- 
cated." 2 

1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 207. l Private Correspondence, p. 453. 



276 HENRY CLAY 

When Clay returned to the capital for the special 
session of Congress, which had been called to begin 
a Whig administration of the government on May 
31, 1841, General Harrison was gone. He had lived 
only a month, and John Tyler was established in 
the President's office, a firmer, stronger man, but a 
more mischievous one from every Whig poiut of 
view than Harrison ever could have been. Clay 
had reached the age of sixty-four and his health was 
not of the best. He alluded in his speeches to his 
years, and was likely to make complaint of tire and 
exhaustion before he came to the end of a discourse. 
While Tyler was not one of his trusted friends, he 
was supposed to be an entirely sympathetic disciple. 
In 1825 he had written a letter, which was remem- 
bered, approving of Clay's vote for John Quincy 
Adams. "Instead of seeing in your course on the 
late presidential question aught morally or politic- 
ally wrong," he said, "I am on the contrary fully 
impressed with the belief that the United States 
owes you a deep debt of gratitude for that course." ' 

It is true that he was a strict constructionist of 
the Jeffersouian and Madisonian school, and in the 
Seuate he had put himself in an attitude of opposi- 
tion to internal improvements, the protective sys- 
tem and the national bank. Since that time, how- 
ever, he had given up his seat rather than obey the 
resolutions of the Virginia legislature, instructing 
him to vote to place Benton's black lines around 
the record of censure against Jackson. He thus 
came to be regarded as a kind_of martyr, worthy of 
reward at the hands of the Whig party. He had 
1 Private Correspondence^ pp. 119-120. 



<! TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 277 

wept at Harrisburg, it is said, when Clay was not 
nominated, a test of fealty which seemed to augur 
well for his future course, as a Vice-President at 
least. As has been too often the case in American 
history, however, no thought was given to the 
emergency in which he might come to be President, 
else one of those half-dozen men who had so indig- 
nantly rejected the proposal at Harrisburg might 
have consented to join his name with u Old Tippe- 
canoe' s ' ' for the great contest. 

Tyler entered his office with the determination to 
be a President in deed as well as in name. His first 
utterances indicated an intention to recommend and 
support the leading Whig policies only in a quali- 
fied way, but Clay believed that if he led, the Presi- 
dent would follow. He therefore took command in 
the Senate in that imperial style which was charac- 
teristic of his nature, and fitted him as it did few 
others who ever assumed to speak in a tone of like 
authority. The Whigs came out of the election of 
1840 with a majority of seven in the Senate and of 
nearly fifty in the popular branch of Congress. Clay 
is said to have declared to a friend : " Tyler dares 
not resist me, I will drive him before me." He an- 
nounced in a resolution at the opening of the extra 
session what would constitute the policies of his 
party. They included the repeal of the sub-treasury 
law which had so lately gone into effect, the incor- 
poration of a national bank, his bill distributing 
the proceeds of land sales to the various states, and 
higher tariff duties, — all financial measures destined 
to fall within the field of the Committee on Finance, 
of which he was the chairman. 



27S HENRY CLAY 

Sine© Clay had pronounced, and firmly believod 
the sub-treasury bill to be an entirely pernicious 
and dangerous measure, he first arranged for its re- 
peal. Tyler approved, and the way was clear for 
the great Whig remedy, a national bank. Secre- 
tary of the Treasury Ewing, a warm friend of Clay, 
cordially recommended the establishment of such 
a fiscal agency in Washington. Clay reported a 
bill from his committee in the Senate, and it passed 
both houses of Congress with the party influences 
behind it, being sent at once to the President. 
Then the thunder crashed and the storm descended. 
There was nothing in Tyler's past course of life to 
warrant any one in feeling confident that he would 
sign the bill. There were rumors in plenty that he 
would veto it and already on July 4, 1841, Clay 
wrote to Brooke: "Mr. Tyler's opinions about a 
bank are giving us great trouble. Indeed they 
threaten not only a defeat on that measure, but en- 
danger the permanency and the ascendency of the 
Whig cause." Nevertheless, it was scarcely con- 
ceivable that in view of the sweeping triumph, in 
1840, of Whig principles, of which the bank seemed 
to be the chief, and the unusual and wholly acci- 
dental manner in which Tyler came into the presi- 
dency, that he would defy Clay and the vote of the 
party in Congress on this subject. It was precisely 
that which he did on August 16th. 

The elation of the Democrats was as great as the 
anger of the Whigs, who gathered in front of the 
White House to denounce him as a " traitor," a 
name which followed him over the country. He 
was generally hanged aud burned in effigy, as soon 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 279 

as the magnitude of the act was understood, and it 
was the beginning of a rupture between the Presi- 
dent and his party which rapidly tended to become 
absolute. 

On the 19th of August Clay made his reply to the 
veto message. It was extremely temperate in tone 
under all the circumstances and for that reason con- 
veyed rebuke more stinging than if it had been de- 
livered in a thunderous style. It was an appeal to 
reason rather than to passion. There were allusions 
to the speaker's long and intimate friendship with the 
President, which he wished not to see brought to an 
end. He expressed the desire that no party defec- 
tion or schism should arise to interfere with the ex- 
ecution of the strong commands of the nation of the 
year before. Yet he yielded nothing. His was the 
tone of the leader, and it rang through the country, 
serving to delay j udgment against Tyler until the 
people should have further evidence of his temper. 
Clay wished no one to despair because of disappoint- 
ment in one measure. More remained to be done. 
It was not the time to adjourn and " go home iu 
disgust." " Let us do all," he enjoined, " let us do 
everything we can for the public good. ' ' 

His sober attitude did not serve to save him from 
the attack of the President's defenders, who included 
Senator Rives, of Virginia. It was in a rejoinder to 
Rives that Clay framed a famous phrase. The 
President, he intimated, was surrounded by privy 
councilors, by men engineering a cabal, "a new 
sort of kitchen cabinet," whose object was to 
alienate Mr. Tyler from his old friends. They 
were beating about for recruits and "endeavoring 



280 HENRY CLAY 

to form a third party with materials so scanty as to 
be wholly insufficient to compose a decent corporal's 
guard." The words were immediately caught up 
everywhere and were used against Tyler and the 
second-rate men who moved around him until the 
end of his term. 

The attention of Congress was now diverted to 
the land bill advocated by Clay at so many 
sessions, thus far in vain, except as to the hurtful 
feature of it which caused a distribution of the 
surplus among the several states. It was now 
mutilated before it could be enacted, since an 
amendment, in the spirit of the Compromise of 1833, 
provided that, whenever the needs of the Treasury 
should exceed the twenty per cent, horizontal rate, 
fixed in that year, the distribution to the states 
should be suspended. 

Meanwhile Webster, and other intermediaries be- 
tween the President and Congress, endeavored to 
outline a plan for a bank which would meet with 
Executive favor. As even the name seemed to have 
a hateful suggestion, it was to be called a " Fiscal 
Corporation." The measure passed the House and 
went to the Senate, which duly approved it on 
September 3d, but on the 9th it, too, was vetoed. 
The President had changed his mind after confer- 
ring, if accounts are not at fault, with the i ' corporal's 
guard. ' ' This was bitterness that no language could 
quite compass and the Whig leaders at Washington, 
taking counsel with Clay, resolved upon action 
which would result in reading Tyler out of the 
party. 

The special session of Congress was to adjourn on 



" TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 281 

September 13th. After the second bank veto, the 
members of the cabinet were invited to meet with 
Clay to discuss the subject, though Webster, who 
would have been a powerful addition, did not attend. 
He had been unwilling for some time to follow 
whithersoever Clay led, and he had in hand impor- 
tant negotiations with England concerning the 
Northwestern boundary, which finally resulted in 
the Ashburton Treaty. There were patriotic, as 
well as personal considerations, which led him to 
seek no estrangement with the President at such a 
time. It was agreed at the meeting that the mem- 
bers of the cabinet should, one after another, resign 
on September 11th. As they would each and all be 
dismissed anyhow, they would go together, thus 
creating a great public impression which could not 
fail to redound to the party advantage. 

Tyler found himself, according to the programme, 
without a minister, except Webster, whom he 
seemed greatly to prize. With such support he de- 
clared Clay to be a " doomed man. ' ' He thought that 
they would soon create a new Whig party. Webster 
would bring him New England and they would 
win other states ; but he reckoned badly. He did 
not know the great power which Clay wielded over 
the party. Webster's course was questioned when 
it was not openly disapproved, even in his own 
state, and the date when he too must retire from 
such unusual company was delayed but a little 
while. Indignation, lately without example, was 
directed against Tyler in Whig newspapers, in 
public meetings called especially to denounce him, 
in every variety of medium for the expression of 



282 HEXKY CLAY 

public opinion. The state elections in the autumn 
of 1841 were coming on, and in many parts of the 
country there was almost as much excitement as 
in the memorable preceding year. 

From the Whig point of view, however, they 
were not so happy in their results as might have 
been hoped. On October 28th, Clay at "Ashland " 
wrote to Brooke : ' ' The issue of the elections this 
fall, however much to be regretted, perhaps ought 
not to surprise us. An army which believed itself 
betrayed by its commander-in-chief will never fight 
well under him or while he remains in authority." 
Though the results were in some ways disappoint- 
ing, the party was aroused from centre to rim by 
Tyler's apostasy, as the Whigs generally considered 
it. The Democrats, while they exulted in his 
course, gave him no sincere respect, and his term 
of office proceeded almost friendlessly. Clay's re- 
ward was the knowledge that he had the faith and 
love of his party. He was now its unquestioned 
leader, and was determined to execute the resolve 
which he had several times taken to retire from the 
Senate. He would soon conclude eleven years of 
continuous service in that body. On January 27th 
he wrote Brooke, from Washington, as follows : 

"As we advance in years, our labors ought to 
lighten. With the view to lessen mine, and in con- 
templation of the unhappy and disturbed state of 
our public councils, arising out of the course of Mr. 
Tyler, I mean to resign my seat in the Senate dur- 
ing this session. I want rest and my private affairs 
want attention. Nevertheless I would make any 
personal sacrifice, if, by remaining here, I could do 



u 



TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 283 



any good, but my belief is I can effect nothing, and 
perhaps my absence may remove an obstacle t<> 
something being done by others. I shall therefore 
go home in the spring." l 

This view of the situation was entirely sound. 
It was a prospect very different from that which he 
had beheld a year before when the party entered 
office with so much hope of great achievement. 

Another financial question engaged Mr. Clay's at- 
tention in March, 1842. As the time drew near for 
the reduction of the tariff to the horizontal rate of 
twenty per cent. , where under the terms of the Com- 
promise of 1833 it would stand after June 30, 1842, 
he, as one of the parties to that agreement, as well 
as the Whig leader, felt that he had a duty to per- 
form. Even before the day of reduction, the reve- 
nues were inadequate, counting in the proceeds 
of the land sales which he still wished to distribute 
to the states. Calhoun, on his side, attributed the 
financial distress of the country, now prolonged for 
several years, to the tariff, a theory which Clay 
combated vigorously. He declared again that it 
was his purpose as long as he remained in the Sen- 
ate to see that "the original principles of the act [of 
1833] should be carried out faithfully and honestly." 2 
It was a task of some embarrassment now to state 
that duties greater than twenty per cent, toward 
which, for the conciliation of South Carolina, they 
had all the while been tending, were necessary even 
before that ideal had been reached. He very truly 
said, however, that there was no such limitation in 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 456. 
'Speech in Senate, February 18, 1842. 



284 HENRY CLAY 

the act ; the impression that the tariff was not 
to exceed the horizontal rate of twenty per cent, 
after 1842 was entirely erroneous. This was not 
one of the principles of the Compromise, and it had 
been distinctly stated in 1833 that the duties there- 
after should be what the needs and exigencies of the 
nation might require. After carefully reviewing 
the financial situation of the government, he found 
that 826,000,000 were needed annually from cus- 
toms, and that with importation running at the 
present rate, an ad valorem duty of thirty per cent, 
was imperatively demanded. 

His speeches at this session were couched in mod- 
erate and conciliatory language. They seemed to 
be the laying down of programmes for his followers 
by a departing leader, who wished to go in the spirit 
of peace. His place was to be taken by his friend, 
John J. Crittenden, who had entered the Senate as 
his colleague from Kentucky, in 1835, and resigned 
in 1841 only to enter Harrison's cabinet, which he 
had left at the time of the explosion in the preced- 
ing September. On March 31st Clay delivered his 
farewell address. It was one of the most notable 
events in the history of the United States Senate. 
The act was performed with all the dramatic ac- 
companiments and settings which characterized his 
life as a great popular leader. The chamber was 
crowded by men and women who bent forward to 
hear the stately sentences which were for the last 
time, as it was believed, to flow in that place from 
the silver tongue of their beloved orator. The peo- 
ple " seemed to be literally piled one upon another." 
Not only was every seat taken, but the railings also 



'" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO " 285 

were occupied, while every avenue leading to the 
chamber was choked with humanity. Two hours 
before the speech began exit and entrance were 
equally impossible. 

There was no disappointment. It was a solemn 
scene. Clay rose to offer " the last motion I shall 
ever make in this body" — the presentation of the 
credentials of his successor. He opened with a 
tribute to the Senate, which he said could, " with- 
out arrogance or presumption, stand an advantageous 
comparison with any deliberative body that ever 
existed in ancient or modern times." He had been 
in the public service almost continuously since 1806. 
It was not for him to say what had been his success. 
" History, if she deign to notice me, and posterity, 
if the recollection of my humble actions shall be 
transmitted to posterity, are the best, the truest and 
the most impartial judges. When death has closed 
the scene, then sentence will be pronounced and to 
that I commit myself." 

He spoke of his enemies without bitterness, and 
of his friends, to whom his heart went out in "never- 
ceasing gratitude." His feelings, when alluding to 
them, overcame him, and he proceeded with " deep 
sensibility and difficult utterance." He paid his 
tribute to Kentucky ; he repelled the charge that he 
was a " dictator." He owned that his nature was 
warm, his temper ardent and his disposition, es- 
pecially in relation to the public service, enthu- 
siastic, and he made his apologies to any of his 
brother senators whom he may have offended, per- 
haps, by word or tone of speech in the course of de- 
bate. He would go without carrying with him "a 



286 HENRY CLAY 

single feeling of resentment or dissatisfaction to the 
Senate, or any one of its members." Such senti- 
ments should be consigned to oblivion. His wish 
was that the recollections of all " shall dwell in 
future only on those conflicts of mind with mind, 
those intellectual struggles, those noble exhibitions 
of the powers of logic, argument and eloquence hon- 
orable to the Senate and to the nation, in which each 
has sought and contended for what he deemed the 
best mode of accomplishing one common object, the 
interest and the most happiness of our beloved coun- 
try." He prayed " the most precious blessings of 
Heaven " to rest upon " the whole Senate, and each 
member of it," and bade them all "along, a last- 
ing, and a friendly farewell." 

Thereupon Mr. Crittenden took the oath of office 
and William C. Preston of South Carolina, Calhoun's 
colleague though a Whig and a friend of Clay, rose 
to say that what had just occurred was an epoch 
in the history of the Senate, and he would move an 
adjournment, which was unanimously agreed to. 
The members pressed around the orator. Calhoun 
shook hands with him for the first time in many 
years. For a minute or two neither man was able 
to speak. Finally as they parted Clay said, " Give 
my best regards to Mrs. Calhoun." Sober old sen- 
ators as well as ladies in the galleries were in tears 
while Clay spoke, and impressive as is the ora- 
tion upon a reading at this day, one who heard it 
has declared that the printed words convey only the 
most meagre suggestion of its power and beauty. 
Crittenden wrote to a friend that "Clay's leaving 
Congress was something like the soul's quitting the 



''TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO » 287 

body." 1 "It was the first occasion of the kind," 
said Benton in describing the scene a few years later, 
" and thus far has been the last." He added sagely 
that i i it might not be reconimendable for any one 
except another Henry Clay — if another should ever 
appear, — to attempt the imitation." 

1 Life of Crittenden, Vol. I, p. 177. 



CHAPTEE XI 

SLAVERY AND ANTI- SLAVERY 

Beyond all doubt Henry Clay hated slavery, 
though he owned negroes as did most men of his 
wealth and position in Kentucky. He had as body- 
servants one or two slaves who were his almost in- 
separable companions. One of these, Aaron Dupuy, 
accompanied him to Washington in the early years 
of his public career, and also went abroad with him 
when he was commissioner in 1814-1815 at Ghent. 
Aaron's wife, Mammy Lottie, nursed all of Mr. 
Clay's children and many of his grandchildren, and 
when Aaron became too old for the service, his 
place as valet was taken by his son Charles, of 
whom Mr. Clay spoke as "my faithful servant and 
friend Charles." 

He was not oblivious to the evils of slavery — no 
thoughtful, humane man could be — but he had been 
closely associated with this system of labor, and it 
did not bear upon him as the intolerable yoke 
which it seemed to increasing numbers of per- 
sons at the North, in large part drawn from his 
own political party. While in early life he had ex- 
pressed his abhorrence of the institution, as had most 
of the Virginia "fathers" out of whose school he 
sprang, he had spoken quite clearly on the slave- 
holders' side while the question of the Missouri Com- 
promise was under discussion. 

He was always a consistent advocate of the 



SLAVEEY AND ANTI SLAVEEY 289 

colonization of the negroes in Liberia, or elsewhere, 
but this policy was recommended with the desire of 
riddiug the country of the free negro rather than the 
slave, and was therefore a sectional measure designed 
principally to favor the South. 

In 1830 while William Lloyd Garrison was in 
prison in Baltimore, the young and enthusiastic 
anti-slavery poet, John G. Whittier, wrote to Henry 
Clay, asking him to intervene in behalf of the 
Abolitionist. Clay communicated with his friend 
Niles, and probably would have paid the fine to ob- 
tain Garrison's release if measures to secure this 
end had not been earlier taken by other men. 1 
This was of course before Abolition became the 
sectional firebrand which it was soon to be. Mr. 
Clay wasted little sympathy upon Mr. Garrison in 
later years. 

1 Referred to in William Lloyd Garrison, by his children, 
Vol. I, pp. 189-190. In 1879 Whittier wrote from Amesbury 
to Thomas H. Clay, grandson of Henry Clay: "When W. L. 
Garrison was imprisoned in Baltimore, he wrote me a letter 
from his prison. I was anxious to do something for him. 
I had no knowledge of any person of influence in Baltimore and 
it occurred to me that Henry Clay, whom I greatly admired, 
might possibly exert an influence in his favor. I wrote him 
stating the case, and mentioned the fact that Garrison had been 
the first, or nearly the first, to nominate him for the presidency 
in New England. After some delay, I received a letter from 
thy honored grandfather, saying that from my representation, 
and from his own knowledge of Garrison, he had communicated 
with a friend in Baltimore (I think he mentioned Mr. Niles of 
the Register) asking him to inquire into the matter, and render 
on his account what aid he could to Mr. Garrison ; but he had 
just learned that he had been anticipated by a New York 
merchant [Arthur Tappan] who had paid the fine and set him at 
liberty. ... I have always regarded it as a very noble act 
on thy grandfather's part, characteristic of his noble and generous 
nature. Would to Heaven there could be found in all the South 
at this time one like him." 



290 HENRY CLAY 

The truth is that his utterances covered both sides 
of the question, though there is not the least reason 
to doubt that he sincerely and earnestly desired the 
emancipation of the negroes and would have con- 
tributed in any way, which seemed to him feasible 
and right, to the bringing about of this object. 

Mr. Clay was one of the founders of the American 
Colonization Society, which was formed to return 
free people of color to Africa, and in 1836, upon the 
death of James Madison, he became its president. 
The speech delivered before it in the hall of the 
House of Representatives on January 20, 1827, to 
which reference has been made, was not anything 
like an Abolition document. He clearly said that 
the general government had no constitutional power 
to emancipate the slaves. It was a matter for the 
states, and "the states only which tolerate slavery." 
Yet he had visions of the extinction of the evil. 
They who reproached the society for its exertions 
were in a difficult position. " If they would repress 
all tendencies toward liberty and ultimate emancipa- 
tion, they must do more than put down the benev- 
olent efforts of this society. They must go back to 
the era of our liberty and independence, and muzzle 
the cannon which thunder its annual joyous return. 
. . . They must blow out the moral lights around 
us, and extinguish that greatest torch of all which 
America presents to a benighted world, pointing the 
way to their rights, their liberties, and their happi- 
ness. And when they have achieved all these pur- 
poses their work will yet be incomplete. They 
must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the 
light of reason, and the love of liberty. Then, and 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 291 

not till then, when universal darkness and despair 
prevail, can you perpetuate slavery, and repress all 
sympathies, and all humane and benevolent efforts 
among freemen, in behalf of the unhappy portion 
of our race doomed to bondage." * 

In his speech before the Kentucky Colonization 
Society at Frankfort on December 17, 1829, he asked 
earnestly, u Is there no remedy? Must we endure 
perpetually all the undoubted mischiefs of a state of 
slavery, as it affects both the free and bond por- 
tions of these states ? ' ' 

And on March 28, 1832, in a speech in the United 
States Senate, Mr. Clay expressed the hope that " at 
some day or other, however distant, and in some 
mode, the country would be rid of this, the darkest 
spot on its mantle." 

The conviction that the general government had 
no authority over slavery, and that it could be 
regulated only by state action in those states which 
tolerated it, was reaffirmed in the Senate in a speech 
on the public lands on June 20, 1832. 2 It became, 
in a sense, the platform upon which Mr. Clay stood 
until the development of events called for a fuller 
statement of his principles. 

Congress was now beginning to receive petitions 
praying its members to take various kinds of drastic 
action upon the slavery question. Their number 
rapidly increased and the mere presentation of them 
angered the Southerners so greatly that they made 
arrangements to forbid it in the House, and if pos- 
sible would have done so in the Senate. Against 
any violation of the right of petition, Clay protested 

1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 339. 2 Ibid., p. 514. 



292 HENRY CLAY 

vigorously in 1836. It had been his habit to bring 
in those petitions which were sent to him. He 
wished that "another organ" had been chosen but, 
when they were committed to his care, it was, he 
conceived, his duty to present them. This duty was 
"of a constitutional, almost a sacred character." l 
He did approve, though reluctantly, of James 
Buchanan's proposal, that when they were received 
it should be without debate. 

In a similar way Clay opposed Calhoun's plan to 
prohibit the circulation through the post-offices in 
the slave states of Abolition tracts and other argu- 
mentative material, on the ground that they were 
"incendiary." Jackson in his message to Cougress 
in December, 1835, had urged the passage of such a 
law. Clay saw only danger to the liberties of the 
people in this course. He was opposed to it " from 
the first to the last," and he hoped that a time 
would never come "when the general government 
should undertake to correct the evil by such reme- 
dies." 

In December, 1837, when petitions were being re- 
ceived on the subject of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, amid continued Southern protests, Clay 
exclaimed : "It has been said that this is not a case 
for argument. Not a case for argument ! What is 
it that lies at the bottom of all our free institutions? 
Argument, inquiry, reasoning, consideration, de- 
liberation. What question is there in human affairs 
so weak or so strong that it cannot be approached 
by argument and reason ? " 

On December 27, 1837, Calhoun in order to bring 
1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 36. 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 293 

the question to an issue and ascertain where the 
senators stood, presented a series of resolutions, six 
in number, which were a declaration of the extreme 
state-rights view of slavery. They led to a fuller 
discussion of the subject than had yet been given to 
it in the United States Senate. It proceeded for 
many days, Calhoun leading in a bitter dictatorial 
spirit, all the while hinting of, when he did not di- 
rectly allude to, the dissolution of the Federal bond. 

" We allow ourselves to speak too frequently, and 
with too much levity of a separation of this Union," 
said Clay, by way of rebuke. " It is a terri ble word, 
to which our ears should not be familiarized. I de- 
sire to see in continued safety and prosperity this 
Union and no other Union. I go for this Union as 
it is, one and indivisible, without diminution. I 
will neither voluntarily leave it nor be driven out 
by force. Here, in my place, I shall contend for 
all the rights of the state which sent me here. I 
shall contend for them with undoubting confidence, 
and with the perfect conviction that they are safer 
in the Union than they would be out of the Union." 

On January 9, 1838, he moved seven resolutions 
which he wished to substitute for those of Mr. Cal- 
houn. They were in substance : 

(1) That slavery in those states in which it ex- 
ists is " subject to the exclusive power and control 
of those states respectively." 

(2) That petitions advocating Abolition in any 
state in which it exists upon coming to the Senate 
"shall be instantly rejected without debate." 

(3) That Abolition in the District of Columbia 
would be in violation of the good faith implied in 



294 HENRY CLAY 

the cession by Virginia and Maryland to the United 
States of that District. In any event it could not 
be effected without the compensation of the owners, 
nor "without exciting a degree of just alarm and 
apprehension in the states recognizing slavery, far 
transcending, in mischievous tendency, any possible 
benefit." 

(4) That " slavery ought not to be abolished 
within the District of Columbia, " in the "deliberate 
judgment" of the Senate, and that "all sincere 
friends of the Union" should cease the agitation of 
the question. 

(5) That it would be "highly inexpedient" to 
abolish slavery in the territory of Florida because 
of the apprehension such action would excite in the 
slave states ; because the people of the territory 
have not asked it to be done ; and because it would 
be in "violation of a solemn compromise" fixing 
the line between slavery and anti-slavery at 36° 30' 
north latitude, except in the case of Missouri. 

(6) That Congress has no constitutional power 
to interfere with the domestic slave-trade. 

(7) That in spite of sectional agitation the Sen- 
ate "beholds with the deepest satisfaction every- 
where prevailing an unconquerable attachment to 
the Union as the sure bulwark of the safety, liberty 
and happiness of the people of the United States.'' 

From our point of view at this day, these declara- 
tions would seem sufficiently far from Abolitionist 
standards to conciliate the most devoted disciple of 
slavery ; but Calhoun would not be conciliated. 
The difference between him and the senator from 
Kentucky, he said, was "as wide as the poles. 

1 Calhoun, Speeches, Vol. Ill, p. 140 et seq. 



)i l 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 295 

The net result of the discussion was, of course, noth- 
ing but more discussion, both in and out of Con- 
gress. The demands of the Abolitionists became 
more insistent, and on February 7, 1839, Clay ad- 
dressed the Senate at considerable length in a care- 
fully prepared statement designed to have its influ- 
ence in the approaching presidential campaign. 
He is said to have taken counsel of his friend 
Senator Preston, of South Carolina, and the result 
was a speech which should have strengthened, and 
did unquestionably strengthen him and his party in 
the slave states. Clay spoke ostensibly to a petition 
of anti- Abolitionists, protesting against the move- 
ment for emancipation in the District of Columbia. 

He began by reiterating his opposition to the 
plan which Congress had adopted of refusing re- 
spectful attention to the petitions of the Aboli- 
tionists. It was inexpedient. It created " inju- 
rious impressions upon the minds of a large portion 
of the community." He addressed himself then to 
the Abolitionists or, as he called them, the " ultra- 
Abolitionists," who were making this demand about 
the District of Columbia, who insisted that Con- 
gress should free the slaves in the territory of Flor- 
ida, and who aimed to prevent the admission to the 
Union of any more slave states and to prohibit the 
traffic in slaves between the several states. To all 
of these propositions he opposed his arguments, and 
saw in the whole agitation the signs of a terrible 
civil war. Congress should not be petitioned on 
such subjects. 

"The free states," he said, "have no more 
power or right to interfere with institutions in the 



296 HENRY CLAY 

slave states, confided to the exclusive jurisdiction 
of those states, than they would have to interfere 
with institutions existing in any foreign country. 
What would be thought of the formation of societies 
in Great Britain, the issue of numerous inflamma- 
tory publications, and the sending out of lecturers 
throughout the kingdom, denouncing and aiming at 
the destruction of any of the institutions of France ? 
Would they be regarded as proceedings warranted 
by good neighborhood ? . . . The slavery which 
exists among us is our affair, not theirs ; and they 
have no more just concern with it than they have 
with slavery as it exists throughout the world." 

There was not only no right to interfere ; there 
was also no possible way to deal with three million 
negroes suddenly given their freedom. There would 
at once be a war between the races, ending in the 
extermination or subjugation of one or the other of 
them. Moreover, it would be robbery to take away 
from its owners property valued at twelve hundred 
millions of dollars, and the taxes to raise such a 
fund could be justly assessed only upon the free 
states, " for it would be a mockery of all justice, 
and an outrage against all equity to levy any por- 
tion of the tax upon the slave states to pay for their 
own unquestioned property." Mr. Clay declared 
that the Abolitionists, instead of "advancing" 
their cause by their efforts, had " thrown back for 
half a century the prospect of any species of eman- 
cipation of the African race, gradual or immediate, 
in any of the states." They were doing more than 
this ; they were increasing the rigors of legislation 
against slaves in the slave states. He could see in 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 297 

it all oiily terrible injustices and dangers. " One 
section," he predicted, u will stand in menacing 
and hostile array against the other. The collision 
of opinion will be quickly followed by the clash of 
arms. ' 7 And what would it be ? u A conquest 
without laurels, without glory ; a self, a suicidal 
conquest; a conquest of brothers over brothers, 
achieved by one over another portion of the de- 
scendants of common ancestors." 

" I am, Mr. President, no friend of slavery," Mr. 
Clay said as he proceeded. "The Searcher of all 
hearts knows that every pulsation of mine beats 
high and strong in the cause of civil liberty. 
Wherever it is safe and practicable, I desire to see 
every portion of the human family in the enjoyment 
of it. But I prefer the liberty of my own country 
to that of any other people ; and the liberty of my 
own race to that of any other race. The liberty of 
the descendants of Africa in the United States is 
incompatible with the safety and liberty of the 
European descendants. Their slavery forms an ex- 
ception, — an exception resulting from a stern and 
inexorable necessity — to the general liberty in the 
United States." 

This was not a very satisfactory statement from 
the standpoint of anti-slavery ; indeed, the least 
satisfactory of all which Clay had made. To many 
it seemed like an important surrender, although it 
was but an amplification of views that he had before 
expressed in only a little different way. Calhoun 
pretended to see in the declaration very marked 
concessions to the South. The discussions of the 
past few months could not seem barren of use, if 



298 HENRY CLAY 

such changes had been effected in the thinking of 
the senator of Kentucky to whom he had listened 
u with pleasure." 

"There were many, very many, in the slave- 
holding states, ' ' said he, ' l who at the commence- 
ment of the controversy believed that slavery was 
an evil to be tolerated, because we could not escape 
from it, but not to be defended. That has passed 
away. We now believe that it has been a great 
blessing to both of the races — the European and 
African — which by a mysterious Providence have 
been brought together in the Southern section of the 
Union." 

Mr. Clay had, of course, said nothing of the kind. 
He did, however, foresee a great sectional rupture, 
if the Abolitionists would not forbear, a greater one 
than any which had been or ever could be precipi- 
tated by the tariff issue. He must be given credit 
for desiring most sincerely to avoid it. His love 
for the Union was at all times deep and earnest, and 
it was his natural course now to seek for some 
ground of conciliation, for which work his life is 
principally to be remembered. It was in relation 
to this speech, which Calhoun so much admired, 
that Clay uttered one of his most famous phrases. 
The noble sentiment might have been called forth 
by service in a worthier interest, but he had the 
merit, then as always, it may be believed, of think- 
ing that he was doing what the highest good de- 
manded. The words were started on their way to 
immortality at a Whig meeting in Philadelphia, 
where Senator Preston of South Carolina spoke. 
Clay, he said, had consulted him as to the propriety 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 299 

of making the speech lest it might offend the rad- 
icals, but had himself definitely and promptly settled 
the matter. "I trust the sentiments and opinions 
are correct," the great leader observed; "I had 
rather be right than be President." 

Clay aimed to steer some safe middle course and 
his task was fraught with difficulty. On March 1, 
184 L, he said in the Senate : " That there is danger 
impending, no one will deny. The danger is in 
ultraism ; the ultraism of a portion of the South on 
the one hand and from Abolition on the other. It 
is to be averted by a moderate but firm course ; not 
being led off into extremes on the one side, or fright- 
ened on the other." 1 

He again very clearly expressed his views upon 
Abolition in a letter to Jacob Gibson in 1842. He 
referred his correspondent to his speech in the Sen- 
ate in 1839. " I regard the existence of slavery as 
an evil," he said ; " I regret it and wish that there 
was not one slave in the United States. But it is an 
evil which, while it affects the states only, or, prin- 
cipally, where it abounds, each state within which 
it is situated is the exclusive judge of what is best 
to be done with it, and no other state has a right to 
interfere in it. Kentucky has no right to interfere 
with the slavery of Virginia, and Ohio has no right 
to interfere with it in either. The jurisdiction of 
each state, where slavery exists, is among the re- 
served rights of the states. Congress possesses no 
power or authority to abolish it. Congress is in- 
vested with no power relating to it, except that 
which assumes its legitimate and continued exist- 

« Colton, Vol. VI, p. 273. 



300 HENRY CLAY 

enee. . . . Although I believe slavery to be an 
evil, I regard it as a far less evil than would arise 
out of an immediate emancipation of the slaves of 
the United {States, and their remaining here mixed 
up in our communities. In such a contingency I 
believe that a bloody civil war would ensue, which 
would terminate only by the extinction of the black 
race. ' ' 

He ' ' regretted extremely the agitation of Aboli- 
tion in the free states. " It had " done no good, but 
harm." It would "do no good." "Abolition," 
he continued, "is a delusion which cannot last. It 
is impossible it should endure. What is it? In 
pursuit of a principle, a great principle if you 
please, it undertakes to tread down, and trample in 
the dust, all opposing principles, however sacred. 
It sets up the right of the people of one state to dic- 
tate to the people of other states. It arrays state 
against state. To make the black man free, it 
would virtually enslave the white man." As to 
what ultimately was to become of slavery he did not 
know. He adroitly referred the question to higher 
powers. "I have no doubt," said he, "that the 
merciful Providence which permitted its introduc- 
tion into our country, against the wishes of our an- 
cestors, will according to His own good pleasure 
and time, provide for its mitigation and termina- 
tion." 

His wish now was that the Abolitionists would 
"cease to agitate a topic which divides, distracts 
and inflames the community ; which tends to array 
man against man, state against state, and section 
against section, and which threatens the greatest of 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVEKY 301 

all possible calamities which could befall this people, 
the dissolution of the Union of these states." ' 

To suppress the issue, which was pressing its way 
forward to displace the older ones, was the hope of 
all the leaders of Clay's generation, and the more it 
came up to disturb their relations with accustomed 
questions of politics the less likely were they to 
treat it patiently. It was not that Clay now loved 
slavery more, but that he was tired of having it 
stuck like a goad into the flank of everything, which 
led to his seeming change of view. Thus did he 
hope to stifle the movement and reestablish equa- 
nimity of feeling both North and South. 

There was no question as to Henry Clay being 
the choice of the Whig party for the presidency at 
the election of 1844. There had been quite enough 
experimentation with other men, and all party senti- 
ment was directed toward his nomination for the 
office. "As far as I can judge," W. P. Mangum 
wrote to Clay on June 15, 1842, u I think the cause 
is constantly brightening. All eyes are turned in a 
single direction. The indecision, vacillation and 
the manifest want of good faith, not to say common 
honesty, on the part of those who administer the 
government have fixed the public eye upon the ad- 
mitted head of the Whig party, with an intensity of 
interest that I am very sure has never happened be- 
fore in my time." 

Mr. Clay's leaving the Senate appeared to be but 
his first step toward the presidency. Never had he 
seemed so strong, so preeminent, so indispensable. 
Never were his friends so many and so devoted. 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 463 et seq. 



302 HENRY CLAY 

The next two years were to see such outbursts of 
love and loyalty as have probably uever been evoked 
by any other public man in a democracy. He came 
to be known as the " Old Prince," and wherever he 
went he was the object of the most remarkable dem- 
onstrations. His return to Lexington after his re- 
tirement from the Senate in 1842 was signalized by 
another great barbecue. In the open air with thou- 
sands crowded about him, he responded to the fol- 
lowing sentiment, which was proposed by the pre- 
siding officer : 

" Henry Clay — farmer of ' Ashland,' patriot and 
philanthropist — the American statesman and un- 
rivaled orator of the age — illustrious abroad, be- 
loved at home : in a long career of eminent public 
service, often, like Aristides, he breasted the raging 
storm of passion and delusion, and by offering him- 
self a sacrifice, saved the Republic ; and now like 
Cincinnatus and Washington, having voluntarily 
retired to the tranquil walks of private life, the 
grateful hearts of his countrymen will do him ample 
justice ; but come what may, Kentucky will stand 
by him, and still continue to cherish and defend, as 
her own, the fame of a son who has emblazoned her 
escutcheon with immortal renown." 

In this speech, which was principally a review 
and defense of his own life, with allusions to the 
distressing financial situation and the attitude of 
President Tyler toward the party which had elected 
him, not one word was said about slavery. Clay 
ended the discourse with a spirited appeal. 
" Whigs," he exclaimed, "arouse from the ignoble 
supineness which encompasses you ; awake from the 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY .303 

lethargy ill which you lie bound ; cast from you that 
unworthy apathy which seems to make you indif- 
ferent to the fate of your country. . . . You 
have been disappointed, deceived, betrayed ; shame- 
fully deceived and betrayed. But will you there- 
fore also prove false and faithless to your country, 
or obey the impulses of a just and patriotic indigna- 
tion ? As for Captain Tyler, he is a mere snap, a 
flash in the pan ; pick your Whig flints and try 
your rifles again." 

The conclusion of the speech was marked by 
"tremendous cheering." The audience, it is said, 
was the largest which had ever been assembled in 
Kentucky, and, while Mr. Clay specifically declared 
that he himself had no hand in the movement to 
make him the next President, this was the unmis- 
takable intention of all his friends. "That lam 
thankful and grateful, profoundly grateful," he 
said, "for these manifestations of confidence and 
attachment, I will not conceal or deny. But I have 
been and mean to remain a passive, if not an indif- 
ferent spectator." At meetings in many states he 
was nominated for the office. Letters and addresses 
poured in upon him at " Ashland," and he was in- 
vited to visit all parts of the Union. In September, 
1842, he addressed a convention of Whigs at Day- 
ton, O., thought to number 100,000 people. He 
moved from place to place like some Roman con- 
queror. On October 1st, on his way to Indianapolis, 
he spoke at Richmond, Ind., a region which con- 
tained a number of Quaker families, actively inter- 
ested in Abolition. A Friend named Mendenhall 
came forward at this place to interrogate Mr. Clay 



304. ilEXEY CLAY 

on the subject of slavery, and to ask him to liberate 
bis own blacks. This device was plainly intended, 
many thought, to embarrass the candidate ; at any 
rate, it very certainly had this effect. In the first 
place, the incident called attention to the fact that 
Clay was a slaveholder. And after that, if he 
should avow a wish to emancipate his slaves, he 
would probably — in the state of public opinion at 
the time — be set upon by the South ; while if he re- 
fused, he would do further affront to the Abolition- 
ists of the North. 

He attacked the question boldly as was his wont. 
The Quaker ran the risk of harsh treatment at the 
hands of the crowd, but the speaker pleaded for his 
security. Clay made it clear that to present a pe- 
tition at all was unusual procedure, and that to pre- 
sent it while he was on a friendly visit to a neigh- 
boring state must seem inhospitable. However, he 
desired u no concealment" of his opinions. "I 
look upon it [slavery] as a great evil," he con- 
tinued, " and deeply lament that we have derived 
it from the parental government, and from our an- 
cestors. I wish every slave in the United States 
was in the country of his ancestors." 

If he were organizing society anew, there could 
be no slavery in it, but that was not the question 
now. It was here and we must reckon with it, and, 
great as he thought its evils to be, " they are noth- 
ing," he declared, " absolutely nothing in compari- 
son with the far greater evils which would inevi- 
tably flow from a sudden, general, and indiscrimi- 
nate emancipation." He spoke again of the danger 
of race wars, and then told of the difficulties that 



SLAYEEY AND ANTI-SLAYEKY 305 

would cod front him, were he to decide to liberate 
his own slaves. A half dozen of them were "a 
hea\ r y charge " upon him by reason of their age and 
decrepitude. To free them would be to consign 
them to starvation. Another class would not accept 
their freedom if he should give it to them. His 
man Charles who accompanied him then, and who 
had done so on former journeys in the United States 
and Canada, had had a thousand opportunities to 
escape but he had no desire to do so. Indeed, when 
some Abolitionists had approached him ou the 
point, he had said that he would not leave Mr. Clay 
for all Canada. " Excuse me, Mr. Mendeuhall," 
Mr. Clay continued, " for saying that my slaves are 
as well fed and clad, look as sleek and hearty, and 
are quite as civil and respectful in their demeanor, 
and as little disposed to wound the feelings of anj^ 
one, as you are." He owned about fifty slaves, 
worth, probably, $15,000. "To turn them loose 
upon society without any means of subsistence or 
support," he continued, "would be an act of 
cruelty." He respected the motives of Abolition- 
ists, who were rational in the formation and expres- 
sion of their views, although he wished they would 
refrain from agitating the question. He had many 
friends among them, but they were not "mono- 
maniacs," such as those seemed to be who had 
joined their names to Mr. MendenhalPs upon the 
petition. 

The speech was received by the crowd as a master- 
piece, and was published everywhere with acclama- 
tion. It seemed to render Clay's position secure iu 
the view of his friends and the way to the presi- 



306 HENKY CLAY 

dency opened clear before him, especially as Tyler 
continued to antagonize the Whig party, soon mak- 
ing the breach irreparable. Congress, after Clay 
had left it, wrestled with the tariff and the land sale 
distribution scheme, which were combined. The 
President twice vetoed the measure. The session 
seemed likely to close without any provision being 
made for raising the revenues necessary for the reg- 
ular conduct of the government; but finally after 
great party asperity, the majority agreed to drop 
the distribution scheme, which was the especial ob- 
ject of Tyler's ire, and to adopt a protective tariff, 
known as the Tariff of 1842. 

In the House John Quincy Adams was making 
his historic contest for the right of petition against 
slavery, which Clay thoroughly approved, though 
he "deeply regretted" it in some particulars. 1 

When Giddings resigned his seat because the 
House condemned him for presenting an anti-slavery 
petition, and went home to Ohio, only to be returned 
by greater majorities, Clay gave him his warmest 
sympathy. Such proscription he could never be 
brought to favor, and, though he was not to be the 
champion of such a cause, there is no reason to think 
that his heart was not at all times right in reference 
to this subject. 

Slavery had come before the nation in many ways 
in the past few years, but it was to be heard from in 
a still more ominous tone in the Texan contest, now 
impending. Clay had a record on this question. 
It will be remembered that in 1820, while he was a 
member of the House of Representatives, he attacked 

1 Speech at Lexington upon his return home in 1842. 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 307 

the administration of President Monroe for having 
surrendered the right to this country in the Florida 
Treaty. It was his contention that it had been in- 
cluded in the territory acquired from France by the 
Louisiana Purchase. In 1827, while he was Secre- 
tary of State under Adams, he instructed Poinsett, 
the first United States Minister to the new republic 
of Mexico, to arrange to buy Texas from that coun- 
try. The region, in the next few years, became the 
scene of much lawless adventure, to which the 
Southern slaveholders of the United States contrib- 
uted a great deal, with a view to increasing their 
influence by its annexation. Further attempts 
were made to obtain the country by purchase, but 
these failing, the people, aided by American fili- 
busters, undertook to break away from Mexican 
suzerainty, and establish a separate government in 
the hope of joining the Union in that way. A state 
of war existed for a long time between Mexico and 
the Texan "patriots," and the government of the 
United States was asked, of course, to recognize 
their independence. 

Clay, though he had on many occasions proven 
himself the friend of struggling republics, had 
gained much in experience on this subject, and he 
inwardly revolted, as well he might, at the spec- 
tacle in Texas. He aimed to restrain the govern- 
ment from a precipitate course, both by speech and 
act. In 1837 the Texans offered themselves for sale 
to Van Buren but he declined their advances. 
Northern legislatures adopted resolutions protesting 
against such a policy, and it was seen to be a contest 
between slavery and anti-slavery, likely at any mo- 



308 HEXKY CLAY 

nient to assume the most dangerous appearance. 
Tyler took up the cause of Texas and the South, but 
Webster still had a place in the cabinet, and op- 
posed the step. 

The result of the elections in the autumn of 1842, 
so unfavorable to the Whigs, gave new zeal to the 
President, who now thought that his future fortune 
lay, perhaps, in the direction of the Democracy, and 
the way was clear when Webster, no longer able 
to continue in such company, left the State Depart- 
ment in May, 1843. Upshur, of Virginia, who be- 
came Secretary of State, ardently espoused the cause 
of Texas and the Southern slaveholders, who had 
pushed into the country to control its destinies. 
The work went forward stealthily. The Senate was 
canvassed with a view to getting enough members 
to approve a treaty of annexation. Mexico pro- 
tested and threatened war, but this did not avail to 
deter the administration. When Upshur was killed, 
by the explosion of a gun, on the United States 
frigate Princeton, Tyler threw himself entirely into 
the arms of the enemy, and invited Calhoun to be- 
come Secretary of State, an office which he accepted, 
singular as the relation must have seemed to him, 
with the ostensible purpose of carrying through this 
extraordinary plot for expanding the area of slavery. 

Meanwhile Clay continued to travel and address 
his countrymen. When he came home from his 
autumn tour in Ohio and Indiana in 1842, he planned 
a trip to New Orleans which was accomplished in 
the winter, and which included a large number of 
cities and towns, where he met with the usual marks 
of attention and enthusiasm. Great crowds as- 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 309 

seuibled to welcome him everywhere. The summer 
of 1843 was devoted to rest and recuperation at 
'" Ashland." In the ensuing winter he left home 
for a trip through the southeastern states, going 
from New Orleaus to Augusta, Charleston, Raleigh 
and intermediate places, where his followers crowded 
to greet and acclaim him. He seemed to be the 
hero of the age. He still spoke on the old Whig- 
issues, unwilling to believe that auy other called for 
public attention, though the Texas question, with 
slavery behind it, pressed insistently for recognition. 
It was generally expected that Van Buren, who 
had visited Clay at " Ashland," would be the op- 
posing candidate in the ensuing campaign. Tyler, 
in spite of his open bid for the distinction, had 
made no progress in winning the popular esteem. 
Clay and Van Buren together agreed that they 
would aim to avoid any declaration on the subject 
of Texas. If it were necessary, however, they 
would make a statement in disapproval of annexa- 
tion. Clay was in Raleigh, N. C, swinging around 
through states which seemed to need the invigora- 
tion of his presence, when Calhoun and the Texan 
envoys, on April 12, 1844, signed the treaty by 
which Texas was to be joined to the United States. 
He could restrain himself no longer and on April 
17th, the National Intelligencer in Washington pub- 
lished what at once came to be known as his 
" Raleigh Letter." He reviewed his own connec- 
tion with the Texas matter. The country was now 
gone from us. The recent recognition of the inde- 
pendence of Texas by the United States had not im- 
paired Mexico's claims, if she chose to continue to 



310 HENKY CLAY 

assert them, and there was evidence that she did. 
By acquiring the territory, we would at once acquire 
a foreign war. As for him he would not favor an- 
nexation at any such price. Moreover, the move- 
ment met with disapproval in many states, and the 
need was for harmony, not for new causes of 
discord and strife. It were vain to attempt to 
strengthen the South in this way. The North could 
retaliate by annexing Canada. 

Sane as the views expressed in it seemed to be, 
the letter naturally met the favor of the extremists 
in neither section of the Union. The course of the 
" pacificator" was becoming more and more diffi- 
cult to pursue. Doubtless, however, the bulk of 
the Whig party believed the manifesto to be a cor- 
rect expression of their views. Van Buren pub- 
lished a letter in the Globe opx^osing annexation on 
not very different grounds. Those who urged it, 
however, had fortified themselves with letters from 
Andrew Jackson, whose voice still had the tone of 
command. Thus the matter stood, when the Whig 
National Convention met in Baltimore on May 1st. 
The treaty was in the hands of the Senate awaiting 
a two-thirds vote. All the Whig leaders were 
gathered together for this great meeting ; they 
nominated Clay with shouts that shook the build- 
ing, and indeed started a panic lest it should 
fall to the ground. As the candidate for Vice- 
President, they chose Theodore Frelinghuysen, of 
New Jersey. Webster had now returned to the 
party fold and added his voice to the general chorus 
of enthusiasm and praise. 

Three weeks later the Democrats met, also in 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 311 

Baltimore. The party was now completely in the 
hands of Calhoun and his friends. Van Buren after 
a few ballots was set aside in favor of James K. Polk 
of Tennessee, a rabid annexationist, to whose name 
was added, for Vice-President, that of George M. 
Dallas, of Pennsylvania, in order to give power to 
the ticket in the Middle states. The annexation of 
Texas was joined with a demand for the reoccupa- 
tion of Oregon, and plans were shrewdly laid for a 
campaign founded on an expansionist programme, 
designed to gain great popularity. Tyler assembled 
his " corporal's guard'' of office-holders, and was 
duly nominated to succeed himself, but before long, 
as he saw, there was nothiDg for him to do except to 
withdraw in favor of the Democratic candidate. 

It was an extraordinary campaign, conducted 
with great spirit and energy, and marked by the 
same enthusiasm with which the people had been 
inspired four years before. 1 Harrison was almost 
deified as a translated leader whose mantle had been 
taken up only to be trampled in the dust by Tyler, 
of whom there was nothing good to be said. The 
raccoon was revived as a party emblem, and every 
effort was made to connect this presidential contest 
with the last, in the hope of sweeping the country 
in the same conclusive manner. 

1 " Both parties entered the field well organized and animated 
with high hopes. The recollection of their success in 1840 in- 
spired the Whigs with courage, while a hitter resentment for 
what they deemed the treachery of Mr. Tyler which had 
snatched from them the fruits of their victory at the last presi- 
dential election, and their ardent attachment to their chivalrio 
and gallant leader, kindled a zeal which spread through all 
ranks of the party and which approached almost to fanaticism." 
— Life and Times of Silas Wright, by Jabez Hammond, p. 496. 



312 HENRY CLAY 

Everywhere was seen tlie Clay Minstrel, a book of 
campaign songs written for such airs as ' ' The Star 
Spangled Banner," "John Anderson, My Jo," 
"Ole Dan Tucker," " Rosin the Bow," and " Royal 
Charlie. ' ' For example, there was a working-man' s 
song, in which no trade seems to have been for- 
gotten, to the tune of " There's Nae Luck About the 
House. ' ' These were some of the stanzas : 

" The Laboring Men that want more work, 

And higher wages too, 
Will help to put in Henry Clay 

With better times in view. 
They'll saw and chop, and grub and dig, 

And shovel, and shovel away, 
And shovel, shovel, shovel, shovel, 

And vote for Henry Clay ! 

11 We want no clothing ready made 

From England, or from France, 
We've Tailors here who know their trade 

They ought to have a chance. 
They'll cut, and baste, and hem and press 

And stitch, and stitch away, 
And stitch, stitch, stitch, stitch, 

And vote for Henry Clay ! 

" The Coopers know when Farmers thrive 

Their trade is always best, 
And so they'll go with one accord 

For Harry of the West. 
They'll dress and raise, and truss and croze, 

And hoop, and hoop away 
And hoop, hoop, hoop, hoop, 

And vote for Henry Clay ! " 

To "Auld Lang Syne" the Whigs sang these 

lines ; 












SLAVERY AXD ANTI-SLAVERY 313 

' ' Leave vain regrets for errors past 

Nor cast the ship away, 
But nail your colors to the mast 

And strike for Harry Clay. 
And strike for Harry Clay, my boys, 

And strike for Harry Clay, 
And nail your colors to the mast 

And strike for Harry Clay ! " 

There were in any campaign songs to the tune of 
" Ole Dan Tucker." One began : 

" The moon was shining silver bright, 
The stars with glory crowned the night, 
High on a limb that ' same ole coon ' 
Was singing to himself this tune — 

Chorus : 

11 Get out of the way, you're all unluoky, 
Clear the track for Old Kentucky." 

But many unusual events occurred, again tending 
to show that some malign fate, altogether beyond 
human reach, was at work to prevent Henry Clay 
from attaining the presidency. In the first place, 
there was the singular fatality of being bound up 
with an expausionist issue to which he was or seemed 
to be opposed. Then there was the Liberty party 
which had nominated James G. Birney, a mere fleck 
on the sky, but full of ominous threat under the 
direction of devoted men determined to give their 
support to no candidate who did not favor the un- 
conditional emancipation of the slaves. Then, too, 
an extraordinary fraud was practiced in Pennsyl- 
vania, where it was made to appear that the Demo- 
cratic rather than the Whig party was the safeguard 



314 HENRY CLAY 

of protection. A governor was to be elected there 
in October. It was felt that as Pennsylvania went 
the nation would go, and the state became a bitterly 
contested battle-ground. 

Though Polk was a free-trader, few knew this, or 
indeed very much else regarding him. 1 During 
the campaign it was a familiar Whig device to 
ask, u Who is Polk?" a question which was al- 
ways answered by a loud guffaw. Dallas had 
been nominated for the express purpose of forward- 
ing a deception on the tariff issue in Pennsylvania 
and the Eastern states. "Polk, Dallas, and the 
Tariff of 1842," a measure which had gained the 
approval of the manufacturers, was a combination 
of words appearing everywhere in popular speech, 
in the newspapers and on banners and transparen- 
cies carried in processions. These dexterous 
campaigners sometimes added the words: " We 
dare the Whigs to repeal it." It speaks not well 
for the intelligence of the people of Pennsylvania 
that a considerable number of them should have 
abandoned Clay, the very prototype of the ' ' Ameri- 
can system," in favor of a party which had always 
opposed protection, and which in 1846 actually did 
repeal the law whereby, through their cries in that 
state, they had elected Polk two years before. The 
Democratic candidate for governor, Shunk, was 
elected in October by a majority of 4,397 and the 

1 u He was a comparatively unknown man, although he had 
served as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He there- 
fore excited no antagonism." — A History of Presidential Elections 
by Edward Stan wood, p. 157. 

Governor Letcher of Kentucky wrote to Mr. Buchanan : 
" Polk ! Great God, what a nomination ! " 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 315 

morale of the Whig party throughout the country 
was brokeu for the national contest to follow in 
November. 

Then, too, there must be a revival of the bargain 
and sale story. Jackson was dying at the " Her- 
mitage," but he raised himself to repeat this foul 
slander that it might again do service, if it would, 
in the campaign of 1844. Clay aud his friends 
evidently thought that it still contained daugers for 
them, and they again bent themselves to the task of 
refuting it. 

The progress of the Texas question was such that 
it injected itself into the campaign to the exclusion 
of almost every other issue in the South as well as in 
those Northern states in which the Abolitionist ele- 
ment had strength. On June 8th, the Senate by a 
vote of thirty-five to sixteen refused its assent to the 
treaty of annexation, and a little later adjourned, 
leaving Tyler, if he could, to find some other way of 
effecting his object. 

As the campaign progressed, Clay's friends, 
especially in the South, grew anxious for his fate, 
and he was, wisely or unwisely, induced to qualify 
the statements which he had pronounced in the 
" Raleigh Letter." He did this in correspondence 
with Stephen F. Miller of Tuscaloosa, Ala. Some 
had said that when he had spoken of opposition to 
annexation in the North, which he wished the 
nation to heed, it was an allusion to the Abolition- 
ists. This Clay emphatically denied. It was " per- 
fectly absurd." " No man in the United States has 
been half as much abused by them [the Abolition- 
ists] as I have been." He added : "Personally I 



316 HENRY CLAY 

could have no objection to the annexation of Texas ; 
but I certainly should be unwilling to see the exist- 
ing Union dissolved, or seriously jeoparded, for the 
sake of acquiring Texas. If any one desires to 
know the leading and paramount object of my 
public life, the preservation of the Union will fur- 
nish him the key." 

In another letter to Mr. Miller he went on to say : 
" Far from having any personal objection to the an- 
nexation of Texas, I should be glad to see it without 
dishonor, without war, and upon just and fair terms. 

I do not think that the subject of slavery ought to 
affect the question one way or the other." 

He had never said that it should, but the Liberty 
party men, most of whom had been Whigs, and fel t 
that they had a greater right to be his judges on this 
account, aimed now to prevent his election by any 
means in their power. 

It was a difficult matter for Clay to explain his 
" Alabama Letters" in the North, though he es- 
sayed the feat. He was subjected to the charge of 
inconsistency by snch leaders as Giddings of Ohio, 
to whom he wrote several "private and confiden- 
tial " epistles, explanatory of the statements he had 
made to his friend in Tuscaloosa. He was sorry, he 
said, writing from "Ashland," on September 11, 
1844, to know that there was any misunderstanding 
in Ohio. " It was not my intention," he continued, 

II to vary the ground in the smallest degree which I 
had assumed in my Raleigh letter. It had been rep- 
resented to me that in that letter I had displayed a 
determined opposition to the annexation of Texas to 
the United States, although the whole Union might 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 317 

be in favor of it, and it could be peacefully and 
honorably effected upon fair and j ust terms. It was 
my purpose in those Alabama letters to say that no 
personal or private motives prompted me to oppose 
annexation, but that my opinion in oppositiou to it 
was founded solely upon public and general con- 
siderations. I, therefore, said that if by common 
consent of the Union, without national dishonor, 
and without war, and upon just conditions, the ob- 
ject of annexation could be accomplished, I did not 
wish to be considered as standing in opposition to 
the wishes of the whole confederacy, but, on the sup- 
position stated, would be glad to see those wishes 
gratified. Could I say less ? " 

If three such states as Ohio, Massachusetts and Ver- 
mont " were to manifest a decided opposition to the 
annexation of Texas," he said positively, " it ought 
not to be annexed to the United States. ' ' He was in 
a siugular position, he wrote to Giddings. ' ' Whilst 
at the South I am represented as a liberty man, at 
the North I am described as an ultra supporter of 
slavery, when in fact I am neither one nor the 
other." l 

While the entire vote for Birney was small, the 
activity of the party was undoubtedly effective in 
chilling the anti-slavery Whigs in Ohio as well as 
in New York, where the margin was very close. It 
was at any rate a pleasure for the Abolitionists to 
assert that but for them he would have been elected, 
though the declaration could have been made quite 
as positively by other interests engaged in the work 

1 Giddings letters published in the Cleveland Herald in 
February, 1879. 



318 HENRY CLAY 






of defeating the hopes of his party in this remark- 
able campaign. In Pennsylvania, if there had been 
no defection of the protectionists, Clay would have 
fared much better. Having that state, and with 
the help of Georgia, where the vote was also very 
close, he would have been elected. AYithout the 
"Alabama Letters," which were thought to have 
done him harm in the North, he very possibly 
would have carried a smaller number of the South- 
ern states. It seemed impossible to believe that a 
leader like Clay, known of all men and deeply be- 
loved as he was by so many of them, could have 
been defeated by such an opponent as Polk. But 
so it was to be. The Whigs waited day after day, 
always with hope and a conviction that fuller 
returns would put a different aspect upon affairs. 
Even for the Democrats it was a victory over which 
they did not feel able to exult, so small were the 
majorities, and so doubtful did they appear to be of 
the justice of the result. Clay had carried Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New 
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee and Ohio — in all he had 105 elec- 
toral votes. Polk had carried Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South 
Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, 
Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas and Mich- 
igan, — in all 170 votes. Several of these states were 
won by small pluralities : 

New York 5,106 

Pennsylvania 6,332 

Virginia 5,873 

Georgia 1,944 



SLAVERY AND ANTI SLAVERY 319 

Indiana 2,344 

Louisiana 699 

Michigan 3,466 

There were charges of fraud in at least four of 
them, and honest and searching investigation might 
have changed the verdict in Clay's favor. It is 
credibly reported that places of business were closed 
or deserted, while the astounding news was dis- 
cussed in subdued and funereal tones, and that men 
and women wept. Such disappointment and grief 
were never seen after any election in this country. 
Clay's friends entirely despaired of the republic. 
Their last hope for it was fled. He seemed 

4 ' A great man struggling with the storms of fate, 
And nobly falling with a falling state." 

Letters poured in upon him from entire strangers 
in all parts of the Union, offering him their sym- 
pathy and assuring him of their continued love and 
esteem. A Pennsylvanian did not hesitate to de- 
clare that Mr. Clay had " nine- tenths of the virtue, 
intelligence and respectability of the nation on his 
side." Millard Fillmore was "unmanned." He 
had "no courage or resolution." "All is gone," 
he wrote. " The last hope which hung first upon 
the city of New York, and then upon Virginia is 
finally dissipated, and I see nothing but despair de- 
picted on every countenance." ! 

To Senator Preston of South Carolina the result 
was a " public calamity." 

There were prayers for the country which had 
been so basely betrayed. One wrote : * i I have 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 479. 



320 HENRY CLAY 

buried a Revolutionary father who poured out his 
blood for his country ; I have followed a mother, 
brothers, sisters and children to the grave ; and, 
although I hope I have felt under all these afflic- 
tions, as a son, a brother and a father should feel, 
yet nothing has so crushed me to the earth and de- 
pressed my spirits as the result of our late political 
contest." 

The grief, said another, " extended itself through 
all ages, sexes and conditions from lisping infancy 
to hoary age." 

" Great God ! is it possible," exclaimed a friend 
in London, when the news came to him. "The 
hopes of the wise and of the worthy of the new and 
of the old world rested upon you." 

An old sea-captain in Providence was heard to 
say: "Could my life insure the success of Henry 
Clay, I would freely lay it down this day." 

A lady in Maryland sent him a counterpane with 
complimentary Hues embroidered upon it. It was 
the work of her own hands in the ninety-third year 
of her age. The women of Virginia set themselves 
to the task of raising money for the erection of a 
statue of the great leader, and employed Joel T. 
Hart to execute it. The gold and silver artisans of 
New York sent him a splendid silver vase, and the 
representatives of many industries which he had 
aided by his advocacy of the protective system 
during his long congressional career, united to 
honor and befriend him. Whig party organiza- 
tions met and adopted resolutions which were duly 
forwarded to "Ashland," some beautifully en- 
grossed and some in silver caskets. In short, every 



SLAVEEY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 321 

possible testimony of continued popular devotiou 
came to lighten the burdens of defeat. A gold pen 
was sent from New York, and a casket of jewels for 
Mrs. Clay from Philadelphia, with a book containing 
several thousand names of both sexes, young and 
old, handsomely printed and bound by a publishing 
house in that city, entitled, " A Testimonial of 
Gratitude and Affection to Henry Clay." It was 
probably true, as one correspondent remarked, that 
Clay had " long since passed that point when office 
could confer additional celebrity, or add one inch 
to the noble preeminence which history will assign 
to you." 

He himself was more bitterly disappointed than 
any but the members of his family and his closest 
friends could know. It is stated that on the night 
the news of his defeat reached "Ashland," Mrs. 
Clay took him in her arms and said as they wept 
together: " My husband, this ungrateful people 
can never truly appreciate you while living. Thank 
God, they have left you in the bosom of your family, 
in this your dear 'Ashland.' " Such a victory, be- 
lieving as Mr. Clay did, was to him, as it was to 
John Quincy Adams, "a dark shade" cast upon 
the nation's "prospects of futurity." "I had 
hoped," wrote Adams, " that under your guidance 
the country would have recovered from the down- 
ward tendency into which it has been sinking." ' 
It was not in any spirit of personal vainglory, there- 
fore, that Clay wrote to a friend : "The late blow 
that has fallen upon our country is very heavy. I 
hope that she may recover from it, but I confess 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 520. 



322 HENRY CLAY 

that the prospect ahead is dark and discouraging. 
I am afraid that it will be yet a long time, if ever, 
that the people recover from the corrupting in- 
fluence and effects of Jacksonism. I pray God to 
give them a happy deliverance. ' ' 

In what ways he would or could have changed the 
course of the nation by coming to the President's 
office in 1844, and whether or not the experience 
would have improved his place in history, are ques- 
tions which may be discussed but cannot be cer- 
tainly determined by any amount of debate. 









CHAPTEE XII 

THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 

This extraordinary outburst of popular love was 
not soon to consume itself by its own unusual ardor. 
In no way was Clay more sincerely touched than by 
a movement, secretly begun and prosecuted, to re- 
lieve him from pressing financial necessities which 
promised him a disturbed old age. He had once 
before been the victim of financial misfortunes, not 
brought upon him by acts of his own. Now agaiu, 
through the reverses of a son engaged in the 
hemp business in Kentucky, he was greatly em- 
barrassed. His prolonged absences in Washington 
had compelled him to neglect his private affairs and 
a heavy mortgage encumbered u Ashland." The 
large demands made upon him led him to wonder 
whether he would not be obliged to part with his 
beloved and now famous home. 

Suddenly, through the foresight and care of vigi- 
lant friends in all parts of the Union, relief came to 
him. One day in 1845, when Mr. Clay was about 
to make a payment on a note, a banker in Lexing- 
ton informed him that the money was at hand to 
extinguish all his debts, including the mortgage on 
" Ashland." "Who did this?" Clay asked with 
deep emotion. The banker said that he was not at 
liberty to-tell, if indeed he could ascertain the names 



324 HENRY CLAY 

of the givers ; it was sufficient to know that they 
were not his " enemies." ' 

Clay debated the matter with his friends. He 
was loath to accept such a gift, especially as he 
knew not whom to thank for it, but he determined 
to take it gratefully. A friend in New Orleans 
wrote him: "In all ages sigual public services 
have been rewarded by national benefactions. In 
our own day Sieyes and Wellington have had grants 
of domaius j the debts of Pitt have been paid by 
Parliament ; Fox did not disdain the assistance of 
his friends. Your memory will furnish innumer- 
able other instances. If republics are ungrateful, 
it is the more necessary that private individuals 
should perform the duty neglected by the public 
authorities." a 

Indeed, there was no other course to pursue. The 
gift appeared as an already discharged obligation, 
and that was the end of it. The sum subscribed 
seems to have amounted to about $50,000. The 
movement was directed in New Orleans, Baltimore, 
Philadelphia, New York and Boston, and with so 
much delicacy and tact that neither then nor since 
has any one revealed particular information con- 
cerning it. It was a spontaneous tribute from sin- 
cere hearts. 3 The tears started into Clay's eyes 
whenever he thought of this last mark of the love 
of his friends. 

To the charge that Clay had no hope to offer to 
those who were opposed to slavery, his response 

1 Col ton, Vol. I, p. 44. 

2 Private Correspondence, p. 528. 

3 Last Seven Fears, p. 40. 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 325 

was a continued interest in the work of the Coloni- 
zation Society. He believed that some of the ne- 
groes, at least, whenever they were freed, could be 
returned to Africa. As for the ultimate extinction 
of the evil, it could come only at some " distant 
day," as he had said in one of his " Alabama Let- 
ters," and no other method presented itself to his 
mind than the inscrutable and a not very certain in- 
terposition of Providence, who had blessed the na- 
tion in its past history, and whose favors we must 
pray Him to continue to bestow. 

Tyler found in Clay's defeat an endorsement of 
his annexation policy, and he pursued it obstinately. 
An effort was now made to accomplish this object 
by joint resolution. A two-thirds vote could not 
be obtained in the Senate ; a resolution needed but 
a simple majority in both houses. On January 25, 
1845, this measure passed the House, with an amend- 
ment, approved by Stephen A. Douglas among oth- 
ers, specifying that such states as should be formed 
out of the territory acquired, if they lay north of 
the Missouri Compromise line, should be free. 

The senators still balked, thinking that their 
body was being deprived of a constitutional func- 
tion ; but they were brought to favor the reso- 
lution, and Tyler, trusting nothing to Polk, hurried 
off an envoy before his term expired. The Texas 
Senate, by joint resolution, approved the plan to 
join the United States, and such determined and 
high-handed methods were soon used, both by the 
Texan government, and by Polk and his advisers, 
that war with Mexico, as Clay had predicted, 
inevitably ensued. The administration, having 



326 HENRY CLAY 

linked the Oregon with the Texas question, was 
also in a fair way to involve the country in a war 
with England in its desire to obey the popular de- 
mand of " Fifty -four forty or fight." Fortunately 
this difficulty was disposed of in a peaceful manner, 
and the country could give its attention to its war 
with Mexico. 

It seemed an outrageous proceeding to Clay and 
to all thinking men, except those who were the 
devoted allies of slavery. During the late winter 
and spring of 1846, he had again gone to New 
Orleans, where he was so much valued and esteemed. 
Returning in April he stopped, on his way up the 
river, at St. Louis. There, and everywhere, he was 
a mark for popular homage. The legislature of 
Kentucky desired to reelect him to the Senate, but 
he declined on the ground that he needed rest a ud 
that his public life was done. The winter of 1846- 
1847 was again spent in New Orleans. During this 
visit he was induced to address a meeting called in 
behalf of the sufferers from the potato famine in 
Ireland, which he did with much feeling and elo- 
quence. " Shall it [this appeal to the sympathy of 
American hearers] be in vain ? " he asked. " Shall 
starving Ireland— the young and the old — dying 
women and children — stretch out their hands to us 
for bread and find no relief? Will not this great 
city, the world's storehouse of an exhaustl ess supply 
of all kinds of food, borne to its overflowing ware 
houses by the Father of Waters, act on this occasion 
in a manner worthy of its high destiny and obey 
the noble impulses of the generous hearts of its 
blessed inhabitants % ' ' The speech, being generally 



THE LAST GEEAT COMPROMISE 327 

reported, awakened feelings of deep gratitude in 
Ireland, as well as elsewhere. Even in this day 
children in Ireland are told of Henry Clay and his 
noble efforts in behalf of their country in that hour 
of need. 

With his deep disappointment as to the course of 
public events, another crushing sorrow came to Clay, 
— the death of his son, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry 
Clay, at the battle of Buena Vista. He had now lost 
all of his daughters and this son, the third, was a 
favorite, deeply loved. He had been educated at 
West Point and had later entered the law, giving 
promise of great ability. Upon the outbreak of the 
Mexican War he offered his services, and became 
the lieutenant- colonel of a Kentucky regiment in 
the army of General Taylor. The old statesman 
was in danger of breaking down under this afflic- 
tion and in the summer, after a sojourn in 
the Virginia mountains, he went to Cape May, 
X. J. He wished to enjoy rest on the seacoast and 
the sea- baths in which he had never before had the 
opportunity to indulge. 

Hither his friends followed him. A delegation 
arrived from New York to say : 

" We come in the name of 400,000 persons to ask 
you once more to visit our metropolis. Permit us, we 
pray you, sir, to announce to our friends, with the 
speed of lightning, that Henry Clay will come to 
them. The great aggregate heart of our city is 
throbbing to bid you welcome, thrice welcome, to 
its hospitalities.' ' 

Others invited him to Philadelphia, New Haven 
and Trenton. He addressed them in a speech, tell- 



328 HENRY CLAY 

ing them the reason tor his journey. He spoke 
with deep emotion of the death of his son, once 
covering his face with his hands for some minutes, 
until he could recover himself. It was his wish to 
dispose completely of the thought that he had any 
political object in view, for there were already 
loud demands that in 1848 he should again be the 
presidential candidate of the Whig party. He was 
deeply touched "that I a private, and. humble 
citizen, without an army, without a navy, without 
even a constable's staff, should have been met at 
every step of my progress with the kindest manifes- 
tations of feeling, — manifestations of which at pres- 
ent a monarch or an emperor might well be proud. " 
He begged his visitors from the various cities to re- 
trace their steps, " charged and surcharged with my 
warmest feelings of gratitude. ' ' 

The Whigs were not skilfully led in Congress, 
and they had an unpopular cause in opposition to 
the extension of the national domain, but they won 
an important victory in the elections of 1846. They 
converted a large Democratic into a small Whig 
majority in the House, and the party felt itself 
materially invigorated. The war proceeded so 
easily and triumphantly that Mexico was soon com- 
pletely at our mercy, and many of the slaveholders, 
by whom the contest had been begun and for whose 
advantage it had been waged, thought seriously of 
annexing not only Texas but Mexico itself. Clay 
was called upon from all sides for his advice. On 
November 13, 1847, with General Scott standing in 
Mexico City, the old statesman addressed an im- 
mense assembly which had gathered in Lexington 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 329 

to hear hiin. The war was an " unnatural war." 
He spoke of its slaughter and of its expense. 
" Every war," said he, " unhinges society, disturbs 
its peaceful and regular industry, and scatters 
poison and seeds of disease and immorality, which 
continue to germinate and diffuse their baneful in- 
fluences long after it has ceased." He told how the 
nation had become involved in this war. It was 
the inevitable result of the annexation of Texas. 
He opposed even the suggestion of the annexation 
of Mexico, or of any other conquered country. In 
this case the people professed and cherished a differ- 
ent religion which would make the undertaking still 
more hazardous. ' ' Those whom God and geography 
have pronounced should live asunder," said he, 
"could never be permanently and harmoniously 
united together." 

Moreover, this Union did not need Mexico for its 
own " happiness or greatness." We already had 
space, and to spare, for all our inhabitants. He had 
opposed the annexation of Texas " with honest zeal 
and most earnest exertions," but being ours, it 
would be folly to throw her "back upon her own 
independence, or into the arms of Mexico." As for 
the annexation of Mexico it, too, was not to be 
thought of by any honorable man. " Of all the 
dangers and misfortunes which could befall this 
nation," said he, " I should regard that of its becom- 
ing a warlike and conquering power the most dire- 
ful and fatal." By such a course we would affix 
"to our name and national character, a similar if 
not a worse stigma than that involved in the parti- 
tion of Poland." At the conclusion of the speech 



330 HEXEY CLAY 

Clay offered eight resolutions, expressive of his 
views. The seventh of these was as follows : 

"Resolved, that we do positively and emphatic- 
ally disclaim and disavow any wish or desire on 
our part to acquire any foreign territory whatever 
for purposes of propagating slavery, or of introduc- 
ing slaves from the United States into such foreign 
territory. ' ' 

The Whigs of the country were invited to meet 
and express their feelings and opinions upon the 
subject, and they responded at once, endorsing Clay 
and his resolutions in the most emphatic terms. In 
the large cities the meetings attained enormous pro- 
portions. His voice came as a " trumpet blast," 
said an address adopted by a great assemblage in 
New York. In that city his Lexington speech was 
printed in gold letters and elegantly bound, with a 
frontispiece portrait. He was shown standing upon 
a rock. At his right was a sailor holding the Amer- 
ican flag ; on the left an artisan, emblematic of the 
peaceful pursuits which his policies had done so 
much to cultivate. 

That the party everywhere looked to Clay as its 
leader, and poured upon, indeed overwhelmed him 
with, expressions of its affection and confidence, led 
him to say naught in discouragement of proposals 
to bring his name before the nominating convention 
in 1848. Thurlow Weed, who had cheated Clay out 
of the prize in 1840, and taken up a military candi- 
date, now again sought a returning "hero" from 
the Mexican battle-fields. Zachary Taylor seemed 
to meet the requirements of the case from the stand- 
point of the " practical politicians" in the party. 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 331 

Despite the fact that he had spent his life on the 
frontier, and was without party affiliations — he had 
never in his life attended an election to vote for any 
one — it was conceived that he would be a good Whig 
leader. 

Needless to say, Clay did not accede to this view. 
It was his objection to Jackson, of course, that he 
was a military chieftain, and was without knowledge 
or skill in civil matters. He wrote to Daniel Ull. 
man on May 12, 1847, that, if General Taylor were 
chosen, the nation, in his opinion, could u bid adieu 
to the election ever again of any man to the office of 
Chief Magistrate, who is not taken from the army. 
Both parties will stand committed to the choice of 
military men. Each in the future will seek to bring 
him forward who will be most likely to secure the 
public suffrage. Military chieftain will succeed 
military chieftain until at last one will reach the 
presidency who, more unscrupulous than his prede- 
cessors, will put an end to our liberties and establish 
a throne of military despotism." l 

The course of opinion, however remarkable it 
may seem, was steadily in the direction of the nom- 
ination of this ignorant man. Serious doubt as to 
the wisdom of again making Clay the candidate of 
the party was expressed by a friend as warm and 
close to him as John J. Crittenden. " I prefer Mr. 
Clay to all men for the presidency," he wrote, " but 
my conviction, my involuntary conviction, is that 
he cannot be elected." 

In the winter of 1847-1848 Mr. Clay visited Wash- 
ington to appear in a case before the Supreme 
1 Private Correspondence, pp. 541-542. 



332 HENRY CLAY 

Court. For a uuiuber of years be bad been presi- 
dent of tbe American Colonization Society, in whose 
purposes, as we bave seen, be bad a sincere belief. 
Tbe annual meetings were beld in Washington in 
January, and he had not been able to attend them 
since bis retirement from tbe Senate. Now another 
opportunity came, and the society, in order to accom- 
modate all those who would be present, secured the 
use of tbe hall of the House of Representatives. 
The sessions were usually held in the First Presby- 
terian Church. This year, however, the Capitol itself 
would not suffice to contain the crowds drawn there, 
not because of any interest in the subject of coloni- 
zation, but to see and hear Henry Clay. 

Men came from New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 
more, Richmond and other distant cities. "Whole 
acres" of them, according to Alexander H. Stephens, 
who had his own experiences in pressing his insignif- 
icant frame into the chamber by a side door, were 
turned away. Clay himself could scarcely get into 
the auditory. The call for an address was unex. 
pected, he said. " I have just terminated an ardu- 
ous journey of many hundreds of miles made in 
midwinter," he reminded his hearers, " and wher- 
ever I have been it has invariably been my lot to be 
surrounded by throngs." Therefore he had not had 
the opportunity to make " a solitary note," to guide 
him through such remarks as he should offer. He 
had been one of the founders of the society which 
now for twenty-five years had been sending free 
negroes to Liberia. " Far, very far, was it from our 
purpose to interfere with the slaves, or to shake or 
affect the title by which they are held in the least 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 333 

degree whatever." He would not touch upon the 
subject of slavery, with which the society itself 
was not concerned, and though extremists among 
slaveholders on the one side, and Abolitionists on 
the other should denounce, through misunderstand- 
ing, the work of the society, it was doing that which 
must be done, — effecting the separation of races who 
could never become "one homogeneous people." 

The audience shouted and applauded, as crowds 
ever did in Clay's magnetic presence. Representa- 
tive Sherrerd, of North Carolina, remarked to 
Stephens that "Clay could get more men to run 
after him to hear him speak and fewer to vote for 
him than any man in America." l 

The Supreme Court room on February 12th, when 
Clay appeared there in Houston vs. the City Bank 
of New Orleans, was also densely packed, and thus 
it was wherever he went. While in Washington he 
dined at the President' s. ' ' Madam , " he sai d to Mrs. 
Polk on this occasion, "I have never heard any one 
make the least complaint of your administration, 
though I have occasionally heard some complaint of 
your husband's." The sudden fatality, which on 
February 22d befell John Quincy Adams, who at 
eighty-one was stricken by paralysis while he sat in 
his place in the House of Representatives, very pain- 
fully affected Clay. He visited the old statesman, 
who had been his companion in arms for so many 
years. Though Adams was quite unconscious Mr. 

x Schurz, Vol. II, pp. 269-270, following Johnston and 
Browne's Life of Stephens, which gives the date of Stephens's 
letter reporting this meeting as 1845, manifestly errs. The date 
must be 1848. Clay did not attend the meeting of the Coloni- 
zation Sooiety in 1845. See its reports for those years. 



334 HENRY CLAY 

Clay took one of the limp hands in his own and 
gave way to his grief. 

Going on to Philadelphia, Clay was treated to a 
public reception in Independence Hall. He feel- 
ingly spoke of Mr. Adams, news of whose death 
overtook him at Baltimore. A pressing invitation 
to go to New York was accepted. A delegation 
of the citizens of Philadelphia, in the olden style, 
accompanied him as an escort as far as Amboy, 
where he was received by a committee representing 
New York, whose guest he was to be. The mayor 
formally welcomed him. Again he must respond. 
Again there was a procession through the streets 
crowded with shouting people, and there seemed 
nothing left but another canvass with Clay as the 
Whig standard-bearer. 

Upon his return to " Ashland " he continued to 
receive letters from his friends, advising him in re- 
gard to the course of the campaign for his nomina- 
tion by the convention, which was to meet in Phila- 
delphia on June 7th. Hopeful accounts of his pros- 
pects were transmitted to him, and he was not vain 
in believing that, if he could be chosen over a mere 
general in the Mexican War, it was his duty not to 
interfere, while his friends pressed his candidacy. 
The Democrats, in passing the free trade tariff of 
1846, had alieuated those protectionist elements 
which they had deceived in 1844. Mr. Clay's pub- 
licly-expressed sympathy for the Irish sufferers by 
famine was thought to mean much in reference to 
the foreign vote which had been cast against him in 
1844. Many excellent arguments were cited in favor 
of his nomination. He, however, was not swift to 



THE LAST GEEAT COMPROMISE 335 

yield. He wrote to Thomas B. Stevenson on De- 
cember 2, 1847 : "Iain most unwilling to be thought 
to desire a nomination for the presidency. If better 
can be done without my name than with it, for God's 
sake, let me be passed by. But if I am to be used, 
I desire that I may be brought forward under the 
most auspicious circumstances." ' 

On February 19, 1848, he again wrote to Steven- 
son : "I maintain my passive attitude ; neither for 
the present consenting to, nor refusing the use of 
my name." 

His friends in Ohio were particularly insistent, 
and from the highest sources in the party came 
promises of the support of his name in the conven- 
tion. By reason of these representations he pub- 
lished a note in a newspaper expressive of his will- 
ingness again to be the Whig candidate. " Having 
taken this ground," he said in April, 1848, recall- 
ing the unfortunate campaign of four years before, 
" I mean henceforward to abstain from writing any 
political letters for publication, whatever the conse- 
quences may be. I have adopted this resolution not 
from any desire to conceal my opinions, but from a 
perfect conviction derived from sad experience that 
all such letters, from perversion or misrepresenta- 
tion, do more harm than good." 

No candidate could be elected without some of the 
slave states and he would receive, he thought, the 
votes of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, 
Maryland, and, probably, Louisiana and Florida. 1 

Bolton, Vol. Ill, p. 461. 

8 These facts are from the Stevenson letters in Col ton, 
Vol. Ill, appendix. 



336 HENRY CLAY' 

The mortification of the next few weeks was great, 
and he shonld have been spared it. The opportunist 
office-seeking leaders, spoken of as the "congres- 
sional clique, " — those who had preferred Harrison 
to Clay in the Harrisburg convention in 1839, — 
aided by some new recruits, were now again in con- 
trol of the party machinery. As many as seven out 
of the twelve Kentucky delegates voted for Taylor. 
It was cause for great disappointment to Clay that 
his old friend Crittenden ' should now oppose him. 
Ohio, whose support had been confidently expected, 
deserted him in an incomprehensible way. On the 
first ballot the vote was, Taylor 111, Clay 97, Scott 
43, Webster 22, Clayton 4 and McLean 2. Clay's 
vote fell and Taylor's gained until the fourth ballot, 
when the latter was nominated. 

The result was far from pleasing to many of the 
delegates, and the convention adjourned in confu- 
sion. It adopted no statement of party principles ; 

1 Happily there was a reunion between Mr. Clay and Mr. 
Crittenden before Mr. Clay's death. The latter one day said to 
a friend whose hand he took in his own: "My friend, my 
dear friend— I must call you so for I have known you so long 
and so well — there is one thing that has troubled me, and that 
is that Mr. Crittenden should have suffered in the public esti- 
mation for his conduct in relation to the election of General 
Taylor and I regret that I was in an error about it even for a 
moment myself. I am now satisfied that his whole conduct 
in that matter was what Mr. Crittenden's friends would have 
expected of him, and I wish you to disabuse the public mind on 
this subject, and do not forget it." — Orlando Brown to Mr. 
Clay's son, Thomas H. Clay, July 19, 1852. 

When Crittenden was mentioned as a candidate for the Whig 
nomination for President in 1852, Clay was asked if he would 
favor it. He replied : "Mr. Crittenden and myself are now 
cordial friends, and if it be necessary to bring him forward as 
the candidate, it will meet my hearty approbation." — J. R. 
Underwood to Thomas H. Clay, August 3, 1852. 



THE LAST GKEAT COMPROMISE 337 

its candidate for the presidency avowed none. Clay 
felt this indignity more than any which he had be- 
fore suffered. To Stevenson he wrote on June 14, 
1848: 

"The less said the better about the result of the 
late Whig convention at Philadelphia. I believe 
that I can bear it with much less regret than my 
warm-hearted friends. Whatever I do feel is prin- 
cipally on their account, and on account of the prin- 
ciples which were at issue, and which have been so 
little regarded. I have not lost one hour's sleep, nor 
one meal of victuals. Accustomed as I have been 
to disappointments and to afflictions, they disturb 
now, less than ever, my composure. I hope that I 
derive some support from a resignation to the will 
of the great Disposer of all events. ' ' 

He wished to know why Ohio had failed. Except 
at the urgent solicitation of that state, he would not 
have allowed his name to come before the conven- 
tion on any account. But he had no reproaches. 
What had been done was done. His friends were 
less philosophic. It was, said one of them, "the 
greatest act of national injustice" which it was in 
the power of the delegates to perform. The pro- 
ceeding was described as "treachery," which met 
with "the execrations of the mass of the party." 
The convention, said another, had committed the 
"double crime of suicide and parricide." It had 
killed itself and its parent at one blow. 

Mr. Clay had cordially given his support to Harri- 
son in 1840, but he could and would not now forward 
Taylor's campaign. He would "remain quiet," 
he wrote to a friend, submitting to what had been 



338 HENEY CLAY 

done in so far as it related to himself. He could 
not favor Taylor as a Whig, when the candidate 
declared that he was a " no party" man, with- 
out definite principles. Indeed, before the meet- 
ing of the convention he had written Clay a letter, 
which the latter had magnanimously neglected to 
make public until long afterward, saying that he 
meant to run for President in any event, whether 
he were nominated as a Whig or not, a fact which 
Mr. Clay's friends always believed would have 
been fatal to the general's prospects if it had been 
disclosed at the right time. 

u In such a contest," said Clay, "I can feel no 
enthusiasm, and I am not hypocrite enough to affect 
what I do not feel. . . . My race is run. Dur- 
ing the short time which remains to me in this world 
I desire to preserve untarnished that character 
which so many have done me the honor to respect 
and esteem. . . . Seeking to influence nobody, I 
hope to be permitted to pursue for myself the dic- 
tates of my own conscience." ! 

Naturally, in the heat of the canvass he was vio- 
lently criticized by Taylor's partisans for not giving 
his aid to the candidate. " It [the criticism] does 
not disturb my equanimity," he wrote to Stevenson 
on August 5th, " nor will it drive me from the even 
tenor of my way. All my solicitude now in regard 
to myself is to preserve untarnished my humble 
fame, and I mean to be the exclusive judge of the 
best means to accomplish that object, 1 ' 

He was never out of the public mind. A vacancy 
occurring in the United States Senate, the governor 

1 Private Correspondence, pp. 567-568. 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 339 

asked him to accept the appointment, but he de- 
clined. Taylor having allied himself with the slave- 
holders, in the view of inany Northern Whigs, efforts 
were made, late in the campaign, to obtain Clay's 
consent to lead a third party, but he promptly re- 
fused. He was still unwilling to say that he would 
vote for Taylor, although every effort was made to 
obtain such a statement from him. No one should 
be misled by him. He was induced to say, how- 
ever, that he could not favor General Cass. 

Slavery and anti -slavery were to enter into the 
contest as never before, with strange results. Taylor 
secured the votes of fifteen states, including eight 
slave states, and won ; but the victory was the knell 
of the Whig party. Like its other President, Har- 
rison, Taylor died after a short incumbency of his 
office, which passed to Millard Fillmore, the Vice- 
President, a respected leader of the party in New 
York state, of whom Mr. Clay thought and spoke 
with favor. 

The winter of 1848-1849 was again spent in New 
Orleans. Mr. Clay had said before going South, in 
answer to many inquiries, that if it were the desire 
of the legislature to send him again to the Senate, 
he would accept the office. He scented the battle 
from afar, and was a little restive to be where he 
could take a part in the great sectional conflict. 
The election, which was for a full term of six years, 
was a satisfaction to him, and afforded him the op- 
portunity to figure in another important national 
scene. 

While he was absent in the South, Kentucky had 
in hand a bitter anti -slavery discussion, induced by 



340 HENEY CLAY 

the election of a convention to revise the state con- 
stitution. On February 17, 1849, he sent from New 
Orleans to Eichard Pindell in Lexington a long 
letter, wherein he expressed his views on the subject 
of emancipation. He had always insisted that it 
was a matter for the states, and now that his own 
Kentucky was face to face with the issue, his heart 
was found in the right place. The question was 
whether slavery should be permitted to continue to 
exist indefinitely, or whether some provision should 
not be made for its ''gradual and ultimate extinc- 
tion." Clay's plan called for arrangements to free at 
a specified age, say twenty- five, all slaves born after 
1855 or 1860. Others would remain slaves for life. 
When liberated they should be removed to some 
colony like Liberia, the cost of the transfer to be 
defrayed out of a fund raised by the hire of the 
freedmen at profitable labor. It was a slow and 
cautious process. It promised nothing for a long 
term of years, and then a difficult and, as we think 
now, an impracticable scheme of colonization. A f ter 
uofolding his plan, Mr. Clay said : 

''Kentucky enjoys high respect and honorable 
consideration throughout the Union and throughout 
the civilized world ; but in my humble opinion no 
title which she has to the esteem and admiration of 
mankind, no deeds of her former glory would equal 
in greatness and grandeur that of being the pioneer 
state in removing from her soil every trace of human 
slavery, and in establishing the descendants of 
Africa within her jurisdiction in the native land of 
their forefathers." 

The not very favorable reception of Clay's sug- 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 341 

gestions must have been foreseen. On March 3d 
he wrote to his sou James : " As I regret to hear 
that it is not popular, I suppose that my letter will 
bring on me some odium. I nevertheless wish it 
published. I owe that to the cause, and to myself 
and to posterity." l 

Of course, naught came of the project. Proposals 
looking toward emancipation, of whatever kind, 
seemed only to increase the determination of the 
slaveholders to prove to the world that their insti- 
tution was irreproachable, if not really sacred. 
The summer for Mr. Clay was spent quietly at 
' ' Ashland, ' ' he not having taken the trip East for 
the u call session." " I shall go to Washington if 
I am spared," he wrote, " with a firm determination 
to oppose or support measures according to my de- 
liberate sense of their effects upon the interests of 
our country." 2 He left home on November 1st, and 
on his way passed two or three weeks in Philadel- 
phia, New York and Baltimore, where, as he wrote 
his son, his presence " excited the usual enthusi- 
asm " amoDg his friends. He took a parlor and a 
bedroom at the National Hotel in Washington, and 
was attended by a valet, a free colored man. He was 
early invited to dine with the President, but their 
relations, as in Louisiana, where they had met after 
the election, were not more than formally civil. 

The bitterness of feeling over the slavery ques- 
tion, which had developed in Mr. Clay's absence, 
was much greater than he could believe. Despite 
his protests against the recognition of the issue, it 
had pressed its way into everything, and a time was 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 585, * Jbid., p. 588, 



342 HENRY CLAY 

at hand when, if some compromise could not be ef- 
fected, the Union might be considered at an end. 
The Southern leaders were not at all pleased to note 
Clay's return to Washington, thinking that his in- 
fluence upon Taylor and the Whig administration 
would unfavorably affect them. He no sooner 
reached there than he took measures to check dis- 
union sentiment. He wrote to General Leslie 
Combs, asking him to organize public meetings in 
Kentucky to stem the progress of the scheme for the 
disruption of the government. Mississippi, in May, 
1849, had taken the lead in an address to the people 
of the South, asking them to send delegates to a 
convention to be held in Nashville on the first Mon- 
day in June, 1850. The support of Kentucky was 
confidently expected by the leaders, and Clay was 
determined that it should not be given. In his let- 
ter to Combs he said : 

' ' The feeling for disunion among some intemper- 
ate Southern politicians is stronger than I hoped, 
or supposed it could be. The masses generally, 
even at the South, are, I believe, yet sound ; but they 
may become influenced and perverted. The best 
counteraction of that feeling is to be derived from 
popular expressions of public meetings of the 
people." ! 

These were held in Kentucky and in other states 
at Clay's patriotic instigation. It was his plan to 
speak little in Congress, and when he did it would 
be with a view to endeavoring to " throw oil upon 
the troubled waters." In the hope that he would 
have small part iu the proceedings he was mistaken, 

1 Private Correspondence, p. 593. 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROxMISE 343 

for he at once took his old post as the leader of the 
Senate — indeed, he could be naught but a leader 
anywhere. 

The burning question was the treatment of slavery 
in the empire which had been acquired as a result 
of the Mexican War. Clay knew, and said in his 
correspondence, that this war had been waged on 
Southern advice, and that the great accessions to 
the national domain were made at the dictation of 
the South. Indeed, all the recent extensions of the 
national area were effected to satisfy the South, 
while the domination of its leaders in the counsels 
of the Union had materially interfered with the de- 
velopment of the manufacturing interests of the 
Northern people. The Wilinot Proviso, that slavery 
should be forever prohibited in all the territory ac- 
quired from Mexico, had Clay's sincere approval. 
If the South did not control her passions and ambi- 
tions, the result would be "the formation of a sec- 
tional and Northern party, which will sooner or 
later take permanent exclusive possession of the 
government." 

In California and New Mexico the people were 
busily at work planning constitutions which would 
lead to their becoming states of the Union. Taylor, 
though much was expected of him as a slaveholder, 
insisted that both California and New Mexico had 
the right to come into the Union as free states, if 
this were their wish. The Southern hotspurs— Cal- 
houn's brood— had never before been so numerous 
and active. Slavery influenced their view of every 
subject. A simple proposal to give the privileges 
of the floor of the Senate to Father Mathew, the 



344 HENRY CLAY 

famous temperance advocate, met with Southern 
opposition because he had once signed an anti- 
slavery petition in Ireland. Such a course deserved 
a stronger reproof than that which came from Clay, 
but he chose his words in his great desire to pacify 
the Southern leaders. " I put it in all seriousness, 
in a spirit of the most perfect kindness to the hon- 
orable senator from Alabama," he said, u whether 
this pushing the subject of slavery, in its collateral 
and remote branches upon all possible occasions 
that may arise, during our deliberations in this 
body, is not impolitic, unwise, and injurious to the 
stability of the very institution which I have no 
doubt the honorable gentleman would uphold." 

Day by day, in his remarks upon great and small 
subjects, he brought back into the Senate that spirit 
of courtesy toward an antagonist, and general suavity 
of demeanor in debate, which were in danger of dis- 
appearing in our national parliamentary bodies, 
and soon after he left the chamber, did entirely dis- 
appear. While he was putting into order his plans 
for some healing measure— it was only the pur- 
pose of applying balm to the distracted country 
which had caused him to consent, at his age, to 
leave his home and resume his place in the Senate, — 
many questions arose to claim his attention. An 
advertisement, which he had chanced to see in a 
newspaper, of the sale of the original manuscript 
copy of Washington's " Farewell Address," gave 
him an opportunity to recall, to the minds of the 
younger men assembled around him, some of its 
patriotic lessons. It was too good an invitation to 
neglect, for he could dwell upon the advice " to be- 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 345 

ware of sectional division, to beware of demagogues, 
to beware of the consequences of the spirit of dis- 
union." 

It was an extraordinary company which he fouud 
in the Senate, — upon his return to the chamber — 
composed as it was of men who had been much 
to the country, or were later destined to figure 
prominently in its history. Some seemed to have 
come for the nation's funeral j some to attend its re- 
birth. The great triumvirs met here for the last 
time. Calhoun, after leaving Tyler's cabinet, had 
been returned to the Senate in 1845, and would die 
in harness in a few months. Webster had returned 
in the same year and would remain until, after 
Taylor's death, Fillmore recalled him to the State 
Department. Benton was in his place, and in look- 
ing around him, Clay could see the faces of Willie 
P. Manguin, Sam Houston, from the new state of 
Texas ; John M. Berrien, the veteran of Georgia ; 
William R. King, of Alabama j Jefferson Davis, 
Lewis Cass, Henry S. Foote, Hunter and Mason of 
Virginia ; Butler, who had three years before be- 
come Calhoun's colleague from South Carolina ; 
Soule of Louisiana, Stephen A. Douglas and John 
Bell ; Thomas Cor win from Ohio, and inflexible 
Northern leaders like John P. Hale, William H. 
Seward and Salmon P. Chase. No similar group of 
men were ever gathered together in any legislative 
hall upon this continent, before or since. 

The question of compromise engaged Clay's at- 
tention by day and by night. He had mauy confer- 
ences with the leaders, and was by no means certain 
of success. On January 24, 1850, he wrote to James 



346 HENRY CLAY 

Harlan : ' ' Slavery here is the all-engrossing theme, 
and iny hopes and my fears alternately prevail as 
to any satisfactory settlement of the vexed question. 
1 have been anxiously considering whether any com- 
prehensive plan can be devised and proposed to ad- 
just satisfactorily the distracting question. I should 
not, however, otfer any scheme unless it meets my 
entire concurrence." l 

Five days later, on January 29th, Clay offered his 
plan to the Senate, in the form of eight resolutions : 

"It being desirable, for the peace, concord and 
harmony of the Union of these states, to settle and 
adjust amicably all existing questions of controversy 
between them, arising out of the institution of sla- 
very, upon a fair, equitable and just basis, there- 
fore, 

" 1st. Resolved, that California, with suitable 
boundaries, ought, upon her application, to be ad- 
mitted as one of the states of this Union without the 
imposition by Congress of any restriction in respect 
to the exclusion or the introduction of slavery within 
those boundaries. 

" 2d. Resolved, that, as slavery does not exist 
by law and is not likely to be introduced into any 
of the territory acquired by the United States from 
the republic of Mexico, it is inexpedient for Con- 
gress to provide by law, either for its introduction 
into or exclusion from any part of the said territory ; 
and that appropriate territorial governments ought 
to be established by Congress in all of the said terri- 
tory, not assigned as the boundaries of the proposed 
state of California, without the adoption of any re- 
striction or condition on the subject of slavery. 

" 3d. Resolved, that the western boundary of 

1 Private Correspondence, pp. 599-600. 



THE LAST GEE AT COMPEOMISE 347 

the state of Texas ought to be fixed on the Eio del 
Norte, commencing one marine league from its 
mouth, and running up that river to the southern 
line of New Mexico ; thence with that line east- 
wardly, and so continuing in the same direction to 
the line established between the United States and 
Spain, excluding any portion of New Mexico, 
whether lying on the east or west of that river. 

" 4th. Eesolved, that it be proposed to the state 
of Texas that the United States will provide for the 
payment of all that portion of the legitimate aud 
bona fide public debt of that state contracted prior 
to its annexation to the United States. [Here follow 
conditions and specifications.] 

" 5th. Eesolved, that it is inexpedient to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, while that in- 
stitution continues to exist in the state of Maryland 
without the consent of that state, without the con- 
sent of the people of the District, and without just 
compensation to the owners of slaves within the 
District. 

" 6th. But resolved, that it is expedient to pro- 
hibit within the District the slave-trade, in slaves 
brought into it from states or places beyond the 
limits of the District, either to be sold therein as 
merchandise, or to be transported to other markets 
without the District of Columbia. 

" 7th. Eesolved, that more effectual provision 
ought to be made by law, according to the require- 
ment of the Constitution, for the restitution and de- 
livery of persons, bound to service or labor in any 
state, who may escape into any other state or terri- 
tory in the Union. 

" 8th. Eesolved, that Congress has no power to 
prohibit or obstruct the trade in slaves between the 
slaveholding states ; but that the admission or ex- 
clusion of slaves, brought from one into another of 



348 HENRY CLAY 

them, depends exclusively upon their own particular 
laws. ' ' 

In introducing these resolutions, Mr. Clay asserted 
that all taken together in combination they proposed 
" an amicable arrangement of all questions in con- 
troversy between the free and the slave states, grow- 
ing out of the great question of slavery." It was, 
he said, "a great national scheme of compromise 
and harmony." His remarks were in his most pa- 
cificatory spirit. They were addressed to North and 
South. He appealed especially to the men of the 
Northern states because they were greater ' ' in point 
of numbers," and he continued happily, "greatness 
and magnanimity should ever be allied." On their 
side they had "an abstraction, a sentiment," noble 
it might be, if it were rightly directed. On the 
other side there was property to be sacrificed ; there 
were homes and families in danger from servile in- 
surrections and race wars. " In the one scale then," 
he concluded, "we behold sentiment, sentiment, 
sentiment alone ; in the other, property, the social 
fabric, life, and all that makes life desirable and 
happy." l 

It was Clay's wish, he said, that the senators 
should consider his proposals calmly, in the spirit 
in which he had thought them out and offered them ; 
but expressions of angry opinion immediately en- 
sued. Foote, Mason, Jefferson Davis and others 
arose in a far from pleasant mood. To Davis, who 
insisted upon an extension of the line of the Missouri 
Compromise to the Pacific Ocean, Clay said in reply : 

1 Last Seven Years, pp. 122-123. 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 349 

" I am reminded of my coming from a slave state. 
I tell the senator from Mississippi [Davis], and I 
tell the senator from Virginia [Mason], that I know 
my duty, and that I mean to express the opinions I 
entertain, fearless of all mankind. . . . And 
now, sir, coming from a slave state, as I do, I owe 
it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the sub- 
ject to say that no earthly power could induce me 
to vote for a specific measure for the introduction of 
slavery where it had not before existed, either north 
or south of the Missouri Compromise line. Coming 
as I do from a slave state, it is my solemn, deliberate 
and well-matured determination that no power, no 
earthly power shall compel me to vote for the posi- 
tive introduction of slavery either south or north of 
that line. Sir, while you reproach and justly, too, 
our British ancestors for the introduction of this in- 
stitution upon the continent of America, I am for 
one unwilling that the posterity of the present in- 
habitants of California or New Mexico shall re- 
proach us for doing just what we reproach Great 
Britain for doing to us. If the citizens of those ter- 
ritories choose to establish slavery, and if they come 
here with constitutions establishing slavery, I am 
for admitting them with such provisions in their 
constitutions ; but then it will be their own work 
and not ours ; and their posterity will have to re- 
proach them and not us for forming constitutions al- 
lowing the institution of slavery to exist among 
them. These are my views, sir, and I choose to ex- 
press them ; and I care not how extensively or 
universally they are known." l 

1 Globe, Vol. 21, Part I, p. 249. 



350 HENRY CLAY 

Clay's proposals were now fairly before the Senate 
and the country. Crowds assembled in the Capitol 
to hear the debates. Clay himself appeared in a 
memorable speech, covering two days, February 
5th and 6th. His health was not good. He was 
separated from the kind attentions of Mrs. Clay, 
and subjected to the inconveniences and discomforts 
of life in a lodging-house. He had carefully pre- 
pared himself for the occasion and was accompanied 
to the Capitol by Rev. Dr. Van Arsdale, who after- 
ward told of the great statesman's debility. As 
they reached the Capitol steps Clay said : 

" Will you lend me your arm, my friend ? for I 
find myself quite weak and exhausted this morn- 
ing." 

Frequently they were obliged to stop that he 
might recover his breath. He had a disagreeable 
cough. 

"Mr. Clay, had you not better defer your 
speech?" Dr. Van Arsdale remarked. "You are 
certainly too ill to exert yourself to-day." 

"My dear friend," answered Clay, "I consider 
our country in danger, and if I can be the means in 
any measure of averting that danger, my health or 
my life is of little consequence." 

The Senate chamber was thronged with spectators 
and auditors from distant cities, women as well as 
men. Clay rose amid an outburst of applause, and 
this was the sign for a great shout from the crowd 
without, hopeless of getting in ; it was, therefore, a 
considerable time before the orator could go on 
with any prospect of being heard. It was an 
extraordinary scene, even when account is taken of 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 351 

Clay's many extraordinary receptions by popular 
audiences. It was in truth ' ' a vast assemblage of 
beauty, grace, elegance and intelligence," as the 
speaker himself said in beginning his speech on 
the second day. Again to hear this polished orator 
of an age which was rapidly going by, was rightly 
esteemed a rare opportunity. He began in a low 
tone, faltering by reason of his ill-health and his 
natural emotions. "I have witnessed many periods 
of great anxiety, of peril and of danger, even, 
to the country," said he, " but I have never 
before arisen to address any assembly so op- 
pressed, so appalled, so anxious. ' ' His moods and 
tones were well measured to the subject and the 
time. There were none of those biting tongues of 
fire in his speech with which he had scourged Jack, 
son, or later Calhoun and the faithless Tyler. It 
was the mellow voice of age, charitable, peace-lov- 
ing, conciliatory, keyed to all the fearful responsi- 
bilities of a serious hour. 

He covered each one of his resolutions in his 
argument, and made friends for them. Members 
from time to time interposed motions to adjourn, but 
he insisted that he was able to proceed, and on the 
second day did bring his argument to the end, in 
an eloquent plea for sectional concord. He pictured 
the horrors of civil war which would inevitably 
follow any attempt at a dissolution of the Union. 
Such a dissolution and war are, he said with what 
truth later events were needed to disclose, "iden- 
tical and inseparable." They are "convertible 
terms." "Such a war too as that would be, follow- 
ing the dissolution of the Union ! " he exclaimed 



352 HENKY CLAY 

with awful prophecy. "Sir, we may search the 
pages of history and none so furious, so bloody, so 
implacable, so exterminating from the wars of 
Greece down, including those of the Commonwealth 
of England and the Kevolution of France — none, 
none of them raged with such violence or was ever 
conducted with such bloodshed and enormities, 
as will that war which shall follow that dis- 
astrous event — if that event ever happens of disso- 
lution." 

He announced his principles on this subject in 
unmistakable terms : 

" I am directly opposed to any purpose of seces- 
sion, of separation. I am for staying within the 
Union and defying any portion of this Union to ex- 
pel or drive me out of the Union. I am for staying 
within the Union and fighting for my rights — if 
necessary with the sword — within the bounds and 
under the safeguard of the Union. I am for vindi- 
cating these rights ; but not by being driven out of 
the Union rashly, and unceremoniously by any por- 
tion of this confederacy. Here I am within it, and 
here I mean to stand and die ; as far as my in- 
dividual purposes or wishes can go — within it to 
protect myself and to defy all power upon earth to 
expel me or drive me from the situation in which I 
am placed." 

He closed with this eloquent appeal : 

" I conjure gentlemen, — whether from the South 
or the North — by all they hold dear in this world, 
— by all their love of liberty, — by all their venera- 
tion for their ancestors, — by all their regard for 
posterity — by all their gratitude to Him who has 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 353 

bestowed upon them such unnumbered blessings — 
by all the duties which they owe to mankind and 
all the duties they owe themselves — by all these 
considerations, I implore them to pause — solemnly 
to pause — at the edge of the precipice before the 
fearful and disastrous leap is taken in the yawning 
abyss below, which will inevitably lead to certain 
and irretrievable destruction. And finally, Mr. 
President, I implore as the best blessing that 
Heaven can bestow upon me upon earth, that, if the 
direful and sad event of the dissolution of the Union 
shall happen, I may not survive to behold the sad 
and heartrending spectacle." 

When he had ended this supreme effort, men 
crowded about him to take his hand, and women 
came up to kiss him, so deeply moved were they by 
the appeal. It seemed a sublime moment in the 
history of the country and Clay was the central 
figure upon the stage. Never had he appeared so 
grand. He had been the darling of his friends. He 
was now almost their god. 

On February 14th, Senator Foote, Davis's col" 
league from Mississippi, made a motion that Clay's 
resolutions and all pending questions bound up with 
slavery should be referred to a select committee of 
thirteen. Other resolutions appeared, notably a se- 
ries brought forward by Bell of Tennessee. There 
ensued long and acrimonious debates upon all the 
various subjects in dispute between the two sections. 

In response to Senator Foote, Clay made these 
notable remarks on February 14th : 

"It is totally unnecessary for the gentleman to 
remind me of my coming from a slaveholding state. 



354 HENRY CLAY 

I know whence I come, and I know my duty, and I 
am ready to submit to any responsibility which be- 
longs to me as a senator from a slaveholding state. 
Sir, I have heard something said on this and a 
former occasion about allegiance to the South. I 
know no South, no North, no East, no West to 
which I owe any allegiauce. I owe allegiance to 
two sovereignties, and only two : one is the sov- 
ereignty of this Union, and the other is the sov- 
ereignty of the state of Kentucky. My allegiance is 
to this Union and to my state ; but if gentlemen sup- 
pose they can exact from me an acknowledgment of 
allegiance to any ideal or future contemplated con- 
federacy of the South, I here declare that I owe no 
allegiance to it ; nor will I, for one, come under any 
such allegiance if I can avoid it." 

In a running debate in the Senate, on February 
20th, charged with inconsistency of conduct on the 
slavery question, Mr. Clay said : 

"From the earliest moment when I could con- 
sider the institution of slavery, I have held and I 
have said from that day down to the present, again 
and again, and I shall go to the grave with the 
opinion, that it is an evil, a social and political 
evil, and that it is a wrong, as it respects those who 
are subject to the institution of slavery. ... I 
desire the sympathy of no man, the forbearance of 
no man ; I desire to escape from no responsibility 
of my public conduct on account of my age, or for 
any other cause. . . . Ready to express my 
opinions upon all and every subject, I am de- 
termined to do so, and no imputation, no threat, no 
menace, no application of awe or terror to me will 



THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 355 

be availing in restraining me from expressing them. 
.None, none whatever." 

Calhoun, dying as he was, too far into the next 
world to speak to this, was led into the Senate while 
his plan of compromise and peace was added to the 
general sum. Webster joined in the debate on 
March the 7th, a date which has ever since attached 
to his speech, so remarkable as a bid for the favor 
of the South. Treason it seemed to be to his New 
England friends. Appearances favored the success 
of Clay's plan, in spite of the acerbity of the public 
mind. For the moment the tide of Abolition in the 
North a little receded, fearful of the pictured 
consequences. The South also curbed its hot pas- 
sions. 

On February 2d Clay wrote to Daniel Ullinan : 
" I am very glad to find that my movement to com- 
promise the slavery question is approved. The 
timid from the North hesitate, and the violent 
from the South may oppose it, but I entertain hopes 
of success." He again urged the holding of public 
meetings in the North, recommending that his name 
should not be mentioned in connection with them. 
They should seem to be local and spontaneous as- 
semblages of the people. On February 15th he 
again wrote to Mr. Ullman concerning his scheme 
of adjustment : " Although I cannot positively say 
so, I entertain strong hopes that it will furnish 
the basis of concord and a satisfactory accommoda- 
tion." 

Some disturbance of the pleasant feeling, to which 
Clay desired to effect a return, was created by Pres- 
ident Tajdor. He, like Jackson, had a military 



356 HENRY CLAY 

view of his office and a slaveholder though he was, 
had been taught to regard all mumbling about dis- 
union as treason. If this was the purpose of these 
Southerners, he said, they should be dealt with by 
law as they deserved, and executed. 

The younger anti-slavery men in the Senate, like 
Seward and Chase, the former with his "higher 
law" speech, also added nothing which was calcu- 
lated to increase the calm of the South. To James 
Harlan, Mr. Clay wrote, on March 16th : " The all- 
engrossing subject of slavery continues to agitate us 
and to paralyze almost all legislation. My hopes 
are strong that the question will ultimately be 
amicably adjusted, although when and how cannot 
be clearly seen." 

Thus hope continued to be felt, but no marked 
progress was made until Foote's motion for the ap- 
pointment of a committee of thirteen was renewed^ 
and this committee with six senators from the North 
and six from the South, with Clay as the thirteenth 
at its head, on April 19th, was commissioned to be- 
gin its task of finding some plan of settlement. To 
these thirteen men came the entire confused mass of 
proposals and suggestions, by which the Senate and 
the country at large had been regaled, during the 
past months. On May 8th Clay and his colleagues 
reported three bills. The first, soon called the 
" Omnibus Bill," provided for the admission of 
California ; the organization of territorial govern- 
ments for New Mexico and Utah without slavery 
restrictions ; and the adjustment of the boundary 
between New Mexico and Texas. The second was 
a fugitive slave law j while the third would prohibit 



THE LAST GEEAT COMPBOMISE 357 

the slave trade in the District of Columbia. To- 
gether they covered all the essential points in Mr. 
Clay's original resolutions. 

Scarcely any one seemed to be pleased with the 
report and it was a basis of further prolific argu- 
ment. On May 13th Mr. Clay himself took up the 
report in a long and carefully prepared speech, 
comparable in many ways with that which he had 
delivered in February. He was now in somewhat 
better health and called upon all his remarkable 
oratorical resources. He believed that the sigus 
improved : 

" I am happy to be able to recognize what all have 
seen, that since the commencement of the session a 
most gratifying change has taken place. The North, 
the glorious North, has come to the rescue of this 
Union of ours. She has displayed a disposition to 
abate in her demands. The South, the glorious 
South — no less glorious than her neighbor section of 
the Union, has also come to the rescue. The minds 
of men have moderated ; passion has given place to 
reason everywhere." 

( 'I do not despair ; I will not despair that the 
measure will be carried," he said as he concluded 
his speech, ' ' and I would almost stake my exist- 
ence, if I dared, that if these measures which have 
been reported by the Committee of Thirteen were 
submitted to the people of the United States to- 
morrow, and their vote were taken upon them, there 
would be nine-tenths of them in favor of the pacifi- 
cation which is embodied in that report. ' ; 

Whether or not this would have been so Clay 
knew not better than many others. There was un- 



358 HENRY CLAY 

questionably a very deep anxiety for some scheme 
of concord, if it should be possible to find one. 

It was necessary in his work of pacification for 
Clay to oppose President Taylor's policy, which 
called for the immediate admission of California as 
a free state, and the opening of a way that seemed 
to pledge Utah and New Mexico to the anti -slavery 
cause also. In speaking against Taylor's desire to 
bring in California at once by a separate bill, Clay, 
on May 21st, made his famous allusions to the five 
"bleeding wounds," which he indicated on his out- 
stretched hand. "What is the plan of the Presi- 
dent?" he exclaimed. "Is it to heal all these 
wounds 1 No such thing. It is only to heal one of 
the five and to leave the other four to bleed more 
profusely than ever by the sole admission of Cali- 
fornia, even if it should produce death itself. I 
have said that five wounds are open and bleeding. 
What are they ? First, there is California ; there 
are the territories, second ; there is the question of 
the boundary of Texas, the third ; there is the fugi- 
tive slave bill, the fourth ; and there is the question 
of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, 
fifth." 

It was the occasion for Benton to say that Clay 
could have found more bleeding wounds if he had 
had more fingers on his hand. These two men who 
had once been friends, and then during the Jack- 
son regime were so bitterly opposed to each other, 
were now united in the work of endeavoring to main- 
tain the Union which they both loved. Neverthe- 
less, they cooperated under a kind of armed neu- 
trality. On June 13th, for instance, Benton accused 



THE LAST GEEAT COMPROMISE 359 

Clay of '' lecturing " the senators, who were all, he 
said, above thirty years of age, the limit prescribed 
by the Constitution. Clay, when his turn came, re- 
torted cleverly amid much laughter : "Now with 
respect to lecturing the Senate, it is an office which 
I have never sought to fill. There are many rea- 
sons why I do not like to do it. In giving a lecture, 
the person lecturing ought to have some ability to 
impart instruction, and the person to whom it is 
addressed should have the capacity of receiving it. 
In this case, as between the senator and myself, both 
of these conditions are wanting. Therefore I do not 
aspire to the office of a lecturer. ' ' 

Clay was in the midst of every discussion of the 
slavery question. He complained often of the de- 
bilities of age, but when spoken of they seemed to 
make his discourses the more impressive. It is 
computed that in this debate he was on his feet no 
less than seventy times. His activity was astound- 
ing. He was in complete control of the situation at 
a period when the Senate had never held so many 
adroit, active, vigorous leaders. It was his policy 
to husband his resources by remaining at home when 
the one great question was not under discussion, but 
it seemed to be almost constantly in the foreground . 
Yet he was very ill and the strain of the contest 
wore upon him as the session went on, day by day, 
through the hot summer. Filibustering policies, 
which he deprecated, were adopted and the sight of 
the old statesman moving that the Senate should 
meet at an earlier hour in the morning and give 
more time to the great work in hand, was one to 
be remembered. He was feeding his life out, inch 



360 HENRY CLAY 

by inch, in his patriotic endeavor to restore the 
harmony of the republic. 

The Nashville Convention of June met and dis- 
solved without coming to those dread conclusions 
which some in the South had hoped for and many, 
both North and South, had feared. On the 9th of 
July President Taylor died suddenly, after a short 
illness, and the Vice-President, Millard Fillmore, 
succeeded to his place. Both of these events strength- 
ened Clay's position in reference to the Compro- 
mise. The cabinet was reorganized, with Webster 
in the State Department ; the administration was 
now friendly and willing to follow a middle course. 

On July 22d, nearly six months after he had in- 
troduced his resolutions, the time came for his clos- 
ing speech upon the report of the committee of 
thirteen. This was a general review of the debate. 
It was another great oration, taxing Clay's mental 
powers and his physical strength, but it was finished 
with entire credit to him, and with advantage to the 
cause, which he pursued with so much devotion. 
Including the interruptions of those who rose to 
make or answer objections, it consumed a day. 
Though it breathed the spirit of conciliation, it was 
full of vigorous denunciation of the ultraists, for it 
was these who, as Clay well understood, were the 
obstacles to the fruition of his plans. He spoke of 
the Abolitionists, on the one hand, as a "fanatic, 
desperate band" — "men who if their power was 
equal to their malignity would seize the sun of this 
great system of ours, drag it from the position in 
which it keeps in order the whole planetary bodies 
of the universe, and replunge the world in chaos 



THE LAST GEE AT COMPROMISE 361 

and confusion to carry out their single idea." On 
the other hand, he roundly castigated Jefferson 
Davis for having said that New Mexico would be 
good ground for "the breeding of slaves." Such 
talk would do "for the bar-rooms of cross-road tav- 
erns. ' ' He had hoped never to hear it on the floor 
of the Senate of the United States. The fire-eater 
Eliett of South Carolina, upon his return from the 
Nashville Convention, where things went not as he 
desired, had raised the ' i standard of rebellion 7 J in 
Charleston. Clay did not neglect him. Barnwell, 
who had taken Calhoun's place in the Senate, un- 
dertook to defend his friend. Nothing daunted 
Clay replied : 

u I know him personally and have some respect 
for him. But if he pronounced the sentiment at- 
tributed to him of raising the standard of disunion 
and of resistance to the common government, what- 
ever he has been, if he follows up that declaration 
by corresponding overt acts, he will be a traitor 
and I hope he will meet the fate of a traitor." 

At this speech there was so much applause in the 
galleries that the chair threatened to clear them, 
reminding the audience that the Senate chamber 
was not a theatre. Clay continued, addressing him- 
self to South Carolina : "I do not regard as my 
duty what the honorable senator seems to regard as 
his. If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of 
resistance unjustly, I never will fight under that 
banner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole 
Union — a subordinate one to my own state. . . . 
Spirited as she [South Carolina] is, spirited as she 
may suppose herself to be, competent as she may 



362 HENEY CLAY 

think herself to wield her separate power against 
the power of this Union, I will tell her and I will 
tell the senator himself that there are as brave, as 
dauntless, as gallant men and as devoted j>atriots in 
every other state of tye Union as are to be found in 
South Carolina herself j and, if in any unjust cause 
South Carolina or any other state should hoist the 
flag of disunion and rebellion, thousands, tens of 
thousands of Kentuckians would flock to the stand- 
ard of their country to dissipate and repress their 
rebellion. These are my sentiments — make the 
most of them." 

In summing up his views and in formulating the 
appeal to his fellow senators Clay said in a burst of 
earnest eloquence : 

* ' I believe from the bottom of my soul that the 
measure is the reunion of this Union. I believe 
that it is the dove of peace which, taking its aerial 
flight from the dome of the Capitol, carries the glad 
tidings of assured peace and restored harmony to all 
the remotest extremities of this distracted land. I 
believe that it will be attended with all these benefi- 
cent effects. And now let us discard all resent- 
ment, all passions, all petty jealousies, all personal 
desires, all love of place, all hungering after the 
gilded crumbs which fall from the table of power. 
Let us forget popular fears from whatever quarter 
they spring. Let us go to the limpid fountain of 
unadulterated patriotism, and, performing a solemn 
lustration, return divested of all selfish, sinister and 
sordid impurities, and think alone of our God, our 
country, our consciences and our glorious Union ; 
that Union without which we shall be torn into 









THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 363 

hostile fragments and sooner or later become the 
victims of military despotism or foreign domina- 
tion. . . . Sir, we have heard hard words, bitter 
words, bitter thoughts, unpleasant feelings toward 
each other in the progress of this great measure. 
Let us forget them. Let us sacrifice these feelings. 
Let us go to the altar of our country and swear, as 
the oath was taken of old, that we will stand by 
her ; we will support her ; that we will uphold her 
Constitution ; that we will preserve her Union, and 
that we will pass this great, comprehensive and 
healing system of measures, which will hush all the 
jarring elements and bring peace and tranquillity to 
our homes.'' 

It was foreseen that the " Omnibus Bill" would 
be defeated, and that the subjects crowded into it 
would be taken out to be considered separately. 
When the measure came to a vote on July 31st, it 
had been so much disfigured by amendments that 
there was nothing left of it but a scheme of terri- 
torial government for Utah. It seemed for a mo- 
ment like defeat, and Clay on the following day, 
August 1st, spoke with much spirit, reaffirming in 
still stronger terms his devotion to the Union, come 
what might. He said with great effect : 

" I stand here in my place, meaning to be unawed 
by any threats, whether they come from individuals 
or from other states. I should deplore, as much as 
any man living or dead, that arms should be raised 
against the authority of the Union, either by indi- 
viduals or by states. But after all that has oc- 
curred, if any one state, or a portion of the people 
of any state, choose to place themselves in military 



364 HENBY CLAY 

array against the government of the Union, I am 
for trying the strength of the government, I am for 
ascertaining whether we have got a government or 
not— practical, efficient, capable of maintaining its 
authority, and of upholding the powers and inter- 
ests which belong to a government. Kor, sir, am 
I to be alarmed or dissuaded from any such course 
by intimations of the spilling of blood. If blood is 
to be spilt, by whose fault is it to be spilt 1 Upon 
the supposition, I maintain it will be the fault of 
those who choose to raise the standard of disunion 
and endeavor to prostrate this government ; and, 
sir, when that is done, so long as it pleases God to 
give me a voice to express my sentiments, or an 
arm weak and enfeebled as it may be by age, that 
voice and that arm will be on the side of my coun- 
try, for the support of the general authority and for 
the maintenance of the powers of this Union.' J 

This speech was interrupted and followed by tre- 
mendous applause. At one point the chair asked 
Mr. Clay to take his seat for a moment. He again 
warned the crowds in the galleries that it was not 
a theatre to which they had come. Clay himself 
urged them to desist. Walker of Wisconsin said it 
was a pleasure to him to hear these expressions of 
^probation. He in turn was asked to take his 
seat, and Clay resumed his patriotic discourse. He 
spoke of disunionist demonstrations at earlier 
periods in the history of the country. He wished 
to know " whether we are bound together by a rope 
of sand or an effective capable government, compe- 
tent to enforce the powers therein vested by the 
Constitution of the United States." What was this 






THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 365 

11 doctrine of nullification " ? " That when a single 
state shall undertake to say that a law passed by 
the twenty-nine states is unconstitutional and void 
she may raise the standard of resistance and defy the 
twenty-nine. Sir, I denied the doctrine twenty years 
ago — I deny it now — I will die denying it. There 
is no such principle. If a state chooses to assume 
the attitude of defiance to the sovereign authority, 
and set up a separate nation against the nation of 
twenty-nine states, it takes the consequences upon 
itself." 

u Gentlemen lay to their souls the flattering 
unction," he said, that the army being led by 
Southern officers would not raise an arm in such a 
contest as they had in mind. They were "utterly 
mistaken." He was told the story of Bernadotte 
who, when he came to the confines of France, re- 
fused to invade his native country. As for him he 
had more admiration for the " Roman father, who 
for the sake of Rome condemned and caused to be 
executed his own son : that is my notion of liberty." 

A senator had again spoken of Virginia as Henry 
Clay's country. 

"This Union is my country," he retorted, "the 
thirty states are my country 5 Kentucky is my coun- 
try, and Virginia no more than any other of the 
states of this Union. She has created on my part 
obligations, and feelings, and duties toward her in 
my private character which, nothing upon earth 
would induce me to forfeit or violate. But even if 
it were my own state — if my own state lawlessly, 
contrary to her duty, should raise the standard of 
disunion against the residue of the Union, I would 



366 HENRY CLAY 

go against her. I would go against Kentucky her- 
self in that contingency, much as I love her." 

These invigorating views, breathing the very 
spirit of Federalism, presented with all the author- 
ity of a man whose traditions were rooted in the 
age of Jefferson, Madison and the "fathers" of 
Virginia, and the period of whose public career ran 
back into that era — presented, too, with a skill and 
an eloquence which no speaker could surpass, and 
with an earnestness which seemed to be, as it was, 
draining his last energies and advancing his life 
nearer its end, produced a powerful effect upon the 
Senate and that immense audience outside, North 
and South, and East and West, to whom his words 
were immediately conveyed. 

The " Omnibus Bill " was lost and it seemed like 
a defeat, but it was really a great victory. Clay 
went off on August 2d to enjoy the cool airs and the 
sea- bathing at Newport. In his absence the sepa- 
rate subjects covered by his resolutions, which had 
so long been before the Senate, were taken up one 
by one, and under urgent pressure the bills fixing 
the Texas boundary, admitting California into the 
Union as a free state, establishing a territorial gov- 
ernment in New Mexico without any condition as 
to slavery, and making more stringent provisions 
in regard to the pursuit and capture of fugitive 
slaves were enacted into laws. Clay returned to 
Washington late in August to find that his entire 
programme had been adopted, except the bill pro- 
hibiting the slave trade in the District of Columbia. 
That too must be passed. The North demanded it. 
It was a part of an integral whole, and Clay led in 






THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 367 

the prolonged contest for its enactment in a number 
of speeches in the first weeks of September. For 
instance, he must combat the statement of Senator 
Hunter of Virginia, as to the blessings of the Afri- 
can slave trade, which Mr. Clay said had met " with 
the almost unanimous detestation of mankind. ' ' He 
did not bandy words in explaining to the Southern 
leaders the difference between a law to abolish the 
slave trade and a law to abolish slavery itself, for 
which the Abolitionists also asked. He again sug- 
gested that if the gentlemen who opposed the meas- 
ure " would be less liable to take alarm upon the 
slightest circumstance, and not be dreading every 
possible occurrence lest it should touch the particu- 
lar institution" which they cherish so much, they 
would, in his belief, " add safety and security to 
that institution itself." 

This bill, too, passed at length and the Compro- 
mise of 1850, <\fter not dissimilar struggles in the 
other house, was complete. This remarkable ses- 
sion of Congress finally adjourned on September 30th 
and Clay was enabled to return to " Ashland," 
where, as he wrote his son Thomas, on September 
6th, while he was still held at Washington by the 
exactions of senatorial service, " I desire to be more 
than I ever did in my life." 



CHAPTER Xin 

THE LAST TWO YEARS 

It was Clay's sincere hope that the Compromise 
would apply to the nation's open wound, the heal- 
ing influences which he believed the great measure 
to contain. He did not think that the return of 
health, composure and good feeling would be instant. 
But he had lived through the Compromises of 1821 
and 1833, and he thought that, as after those two' 
accommodations, better counsels would soon come to 
prevail. Some u ultra- Abolitionists " might ''con- 
tinue to agitate"— that would be " human nature." 
"The disappointed party are always mortified, 
vexed and irritated," said he, " and the successful 
party should bear with a great deal. But the peo- 
ple of the country at large, the people of the United 
States are satisfied with this series of measures. 
And I venture to say that, although here and there 
a voice may be raised to excite and agitate, the great 
mass of the people everywhere rejoice and are glad 
that these questions have been settled." ' 

Clay, of course, as we know to-day, erred in his 
judgment, but he erred with entire sincerity. He 
saw that the old balance between the free and the 
slave states must cease ; that slavery, for which he 
had no love, would probably at some time, in some 
way, succumb. Meantime, come what might, it 

1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 590. 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 369 

was his wish to keep the sections, in as much har- 
mony as possible, within the Union. To that end 
he pat forth every energy, and if the country could 
have gone on without a clash of arms, his would still 
seem to be, as it was before that event, one of the 
greatest names in our public life. The war came to 
disturb our view of the men who in Clay's age gave 
their all to avert it, making way in popular inter- 
est for Lincoln and those whose service consisted in 
its successful prosecution. It was Clay's wish, as 
he told the Southern hotspurs, during the great de- 
bate upon the Compromise, not to live to witness 
this "heartrending'' spectacle, and he was spared 
that distress. 

In the middle of December, 1850, he was again 
in Washington, ready to attend upon the short 
session of Congress. His relations with President 
Fillmore were, as he said, " perfectly friendly and 
confidential." He and Webster sat side by side at 
Jenny Lind's concert, and renewed their old Whig 
friendships on many occasions. In the hope of con- 
tributing to the popular calm, which the Com- 
promise was slow to restore, a declaration and pledge 
was framed for general circulation. It was signed 
by forty-four prominent members of the Senate and 
the House of Representatives, Clay's name leading 
the number. It ran as follows : 

" The undersigned members of the Thirty-first 
Congress of the United States, believing that the re- 
newal of sectional controversy upon the subject of 
slavery would be both dangerous to the Union, and 
destructive of its peace, and seeing no mode by 
which such controversy can be avoided, except by 



370 HENRY CLAY 

a stout adherence to the settlement thereof effected 
by the Compromise passed at the last session of 
Congress, do hereby declare their intention to main- 
tain the said settlement inviolate, and to resist all 
attempts to repeal or alter the acts aforesaid, unless 
by the general consent of the friends of the measure, 
and to remedy such evils, if any, as time and ex- 
perience may develop. And, for the purpose of 
making this resolution effective, they further de- 
clare that they will not support for the office of 
President, or Vice-President, or senator, or of 
representative in Congress, or as member of a state 
legislature, any man of whatever party who is not 
known to be opposed to the disturbance aforesaid ; 
and to the renewal, in any form, of agitation upon 
the subject of slavery hereafter." 
" Washington, January 22, 1851." 

It was not a very sound or substantial peace which 
needed the pledges of citizens to sustain it. In the 
South, the echoes of the Nashville Convention still 
reverberated ; in the North the free negroes were 
running in fright from the " man-hunters " of the 
Fugitive Slave Law, while the Abolitionists daily 
grew in determination and strength. 

Clay continued to denounce them impartially : — 
the Northern disunionists, as he regarded them, on 
the one hand, by whom he was brought to account by 
members like Hale and Chase ; and the Southern 
disunionists on the other, whose leading spokesman 
was Rnett, now seut to the Senate by South 
Carolina as a reward for his rebellious utterances. 
They were alike engaged in the work of trying to 
defeat the purposes of the Compromise. The Shad- 
rach case, involving the rescue of a fugitive slave by 
a mob in Boston from the hands of a deputy marshal, 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 371 

who designed to carry him back to the South, called 
out a proclamation and a message from President 
Fillmore, and excited debates in Congress in which 
Clay took an active part with his old skill and 
fervor. 

But it was a fruitless exercise, and it was all, as 
he too well realized, a cry for peace when, yet at 
least, there was no peace. It was his desire to bring 
the Senate back to the old Whig policies ; so he 
spoke as in the past, on such subjects as the tariff 
and internal improvements, though with little suc- 
cess, and the session came to an end. 

Mr. Clay's cough did not grow better and when 
the Senate adjourned in March, he contemplated re- 
turning home by way of Cuba and New Orleans. 
This was especially urged upon him because of the 
condition of the Cumberland Eoad, at that season of 
the year almost impassable for horse or man. He 
sailed from New York for the softer Caribbean airs 
and was in " Ashland" again in April, " highly 
gratified " with his visit to that " delightful island," 
which was his description of Cuba. However, he 
gained little. On the way he wrote to his son 
James, who had lately returned from the mission to 
Lisbon, a post which his father had been able to 
secure for him, that he was " much reduced and en- 
feebled." " I must get rid of the cough," he said, 
" or it will dispose of me." He eagerly looked for- 
ward to the warm weather of summer hoping that it 
would restore him to comfort and strength. His 
friends still had the wish to make him the Whig 
leader in the presidential campaign of 1852, but he 
discouraged the movement. 



372 HENRY CLAY 

To James Harlan, in 1850, Mr. Clay wrote : "It 
would be great folly in me at my age, with the un- 
certainty of life, and with a recollection of all the 
past, to say now that I would under any contin- 
gencies be a candidate. ... I have already 
publicly declared that I entertained no wish or ex- 
pectation of being a candidate, and I would solemnly 
proclaim that I never would be, under any circum- 
stances whatever, if I did not think that no citizen 
has aright thus absolutely to commit himself." ! 

To a friend who, in April, 1851, condoled with 
him over the nomination of General Taylor in 1848, 
he said that " it had now for him no other than an 
historical interest." Had he been the nominee, he 
was confident that he would have secured every 
electoral vote given to Taylor, and Ohio certainly 
and Indiana possibly, besides. His majority in 
Pennsylvania would have exceeded Taylor's. 2 

In June, 1851, he wrote to his friend Daniel Ull- 
man, of New York, to say that he had not changed 
his mind on the subject of a further candidacy. 
''Considering my age, the delicate state of my 
health, the frequency and the unsuccessful presen- 
tation of my name on former occasions, I feel an 
unconquerable repugnance to such a use of it again. 
I cannot, therefore, consent to it. I have been 
sometimes tempted publicly to announce that under 
no circumstances would I yield my consent to be 
brought forward as a candidate. But I have been 
restrained from taking that step by two consider- 
ations. The first was that I did not see any such 
general allusion to me, as a suitable person for the 

1 Private Correspondence,' f>y. 605-606. 2 Ibid., p. 615, 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 373 

office, as to make it proper that I should break 
silence and speak out ; and the second was that I 
have always thought that no citizen has a right to 
ostracize himself, and to refuse public service under 
all possible contingencies." 

He thought it quite clear that a Democrat would 
be elected in the ensuing year. As for him, if the 
choice must fall to a Democrat, he would prefer 
General Cass, who was in his opinion quite as able, 
quite as firm and possessed of " much more honesty 
and sincerity than Mr. Buchanan." Another ques- 
tion was coming forward in spite of the Compro- 
mise. It would involve " the right of any one of 
the states of the Union upon its owu separate will 
and pleasure to secede from the residue, and become 
a distinct and separate power. . . . For my 
own part I utterly deny the existence of any such 
right, and I think an attempt to exercise it ought to 
be resisted to the last extremity ; for it is, in part, 
a question of union or no union." 

Still plainer were his words in a letter from 
" Ashland " to Thomas B. Stevenson on May 17, 
1851 : 

"You ask what is to be done if South Carolina 
secedes. I answer unhesitatingly that the Consti- 
tution and laws of the United States must continue 
to be enforced there with all the power of the Union, 
if necessary. Secession is treason ; and if it were 
not — if it were a legitimate and rightful exercise of 
power — it would be a virtual dissolution of the 
Union. For if one state may secede, every state 
may secede ; and how long in such a state of things 
could we be kept together? Suppose Kentucky 



374 HENRY CLAY 

were to secede 1 Could the rest of the Union toler- 
ate a foreign power in their very bosom? There 
are those who think the Union must be preserved 
and kept together by an exclusive reliance upon 
love and reason. That is not my opinion. I have 
some confidence iu this instrumentality ; but de- 
pend upon it, that no human government can exist 
without the power of applying force, and the actual 
application of it in extreme cases. " 

The Compromise needed Clay's voice in its sup- 
port in all parts of the Union, but he was unable to 
respond to the calls upon him. A committee of 
citizens of New York urgently invited him to visit 
that state. He sent them a letter asking for a con- 
currence in the principles of the Compromise, in- 
cluding the Fugitive Slave Law, which was a part 
of the whole. There must be good faith in the en- 
forcement of that measure in order to make certain 
of the adherence of the South. But he did not neg- 
lect the radicals, the nullifiers and seceders of that 
section who were also so much at fault. Indeed^ 
they were the principal objects of his attention. If 
they made any attempt to execute their theories, he 
repeated that * ' the power, the authority and the 
dignity of the government ought to be maintained, 
and resistance put down at every hazard." 

After dwelling upon the excellencies of the gov- 
ernment under the Union, he continued: "To re- 
volt against such a government for anything which 
has passed would be so atrocious, and characterized 
by such extreme folly and madness, that we may 
search in vain for an example of it in human 
annals. We can look for its prototype only (if I 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 375 

may be pardoned the allusion) to that diabolical 
revolt which, recorded on the pages of Holy Writ, 
has been illustrated and coinineinorated by the 
sublime genius of the immortal Milton." 

As the time for the opening of the next Congress 
approached, Mr. Clay's health was not sensibly 
better, but he went to Washington in December, 
1851, returning to his rooms at the National Hotel. 
Horace Greeley came to speak of the asperities of 
the Fugitive Slave Law, which Clay sincerely re- 
gretted, and which he would have fought to exclude, 
if he had not been absent at Newport when the bill 
was passed by the Senate. Louis Kossuth, who was 
brought over in a United States man-of-war to re- 
ceive much public attention, also visited Clay, re- 
membered by the Hungarian patriots as the friend 
of the South Americans and of struggling Greece. 
The old statesman had been mellowed by time and 
experience, and he spoke cautiously. Sympathy 
he did not grudge the Hungarians, but he saw the 
futility, danger aud wrong of holding out the pros- 
pect of anything more. He spoke of the coup d'etat 
of Louis Napoleon, on December 2, 1851, and in the 
light of this event despaired of " any present suc- 
cess for liberal institutions in Europe." " Far bet- 
ter is it for ourselves, for Hungary and for the cause 
of liberty," he continued, "that, adhering to our 
wise, pacific system and avoiding the distant wars 
of Europe, we should keep our lamp burning 
brightly on this Western shore, as a light to all 
nations, than to hazard its utter extinction amid the 
ruins of fallen and falling republics in Europe." 

At this session he was able to visit the Senate 



376 HENRY CLAY 

chamber only once, when he made a few remarks on 
an unimportant topic. On Christmas Day, 1852, 
he wrote to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Thomas H. 
Clay, urging his family not to feel alarmed as to his 
condition. If there were a turn for the worse, he 
would immediately notify them by telegraph. He 
had all that he could need, — tempting food, kind 
friends and expert medical attention, which, how- 
ever, failed to relieve the cough that racked his 
frame and enfeebled him. There was " no prospect 
at present of immediate dissolution." He thought 
that he would live for some months, "long enough 
perhaps to reach home once more." 

His friends, in truth, were the soul of devotion to 
his every wish and requirement, and those who 
could not come conveyed to him their sympathy by 
letter, and offered to present themselves to assist in 
nursing him, or to do whatever his comfort could 
command. The winter was a very rigorous one in 
Washington, and the invalid often missed his daily 
drives because of the weather, which continued in- 
clement until late in April. His New York friends 
sent him a handsome medal of pure California gold, 
containing his head in high relief on one side, and 
a brief recital of his principal public acts on the 
other. It was enclosed in a silver case, and was at 
once a handsome and an interesting tribute which 
touched him deeply. The Colonization Society 
adopted a resolution of sympathy and reelected him 
its president. On March 14th he wrote to his son 
James that his condition was "stationary," except 
that he could get no sound, refreshing sleep, even 
with the use of an opiate nightly. He had taken 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 377 

" immense quantities of drugs" without sensible 
benefit. The frequent letters which reached him 
from home afforded him much satisfaction and he 
had the intention of returning to Lexington, if 
strength were allowed him, in May or June. 

His interest in political matters did not at all 
abate, and he was conferred with and gave his 
opinion freely on the subject of the nomination of 
the Whig party for President, which was to be made 
in convention at Baltimore, on June 10th. He 
favored Fillmore as against either Webster or Scott, 
who were the leading candidates, since he seemed 
more likely to be acceptable in both sections, and 
promised to steer the middle course necessary to a 
maintenance of the principles of the Compromise. 
"The foundation of my preference is," he wrote, 
"that Mr. Fillmore has administered the executive 
government with signal success and ability. He has 
been tried and found true, faithful, honest and con- 
scientious. ... I think that prudence and 
wisdom had better restrain us from making any 
change without a necessity for it, the existence of 
which I do not now perceive." 

Late in April he telegraphed for his son Thomas, 
who went to Washington at once, and who soon 
wrote home that "there is no longer any hope of 
his reaching Kentucky alive. ' ' His father could not 
talk for five minutes at a time without exhaustion. 
Yet his mind was clear and his interest in public 
affairs was unabated. All through these weary days 
his patience and cheerfulness never failed. "No 
clouds overhung his future," said John C. Breckin- 
ridge in his eulogy in the House after the great 



378 HENRY CLAY 

statesman's death. ' l He met the end with com- 
posure and his pathway to the grave was brightened 
by the immortal hopes which spring from the Chris- 
tian faith." 1 

"Glorious as was his life," said John J. Critten- 
den, " there was nothing that became him like the 
leaving it. I saw him frequently during the slow 
and lingering disease which terminated his life. He 
was conscious of his approaching end, and prepared 
to meet it with all the resignation and fortitude of a 
Christian hero. He was all patience, meekness, and 
gentleness. These shone around him like a mild, 
celestial light breaking upon him from another 
world. And to add greater honors to his age than 
man can give, he died fearing God." 2 

" Was there ever man had such friends ! " he ex- 
claimed again and again, as tokens of their sym- 
pathy and kindness came to him from all sides. 
The case seemed to defy the intelligent diagnosis of 
the medical practice of that day. The physicians in- 
sisted that the cough was not due to any affection of 
the lungs. He lingered on into June, when the 
heat added to his oppression. He gradually grew 
more and more feeble until it amazed all who were 
around him how he could live in his condition of 
extreme debility. Finally, on the morning of June 
29th, the end was seen to be near. Thomas Clay was 
summoned to his bedside. " Sit near me, my dear 
son," he said, "I do not wish you to leave me for 
any time to-day." He asked for water. "I be- 

1 Eulogy on Henry Clay in the House of Representatives, 
June 30, 1852, by John C. Breckinridge. 

5 " Address on the Life and Death of Henry Clay," delivered 
at Louisville, September 29, 1852, by John J. Crittenden. 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 379 

lieve, my sou, I am going," he added in a few mo- 
ments. He took Ms son's hand, holding it for some 
time. When he released it, it was discovered that 
he was dying. Others were summoned to the bed- 
side and at seventeen minutes past eleven life 
ceased. 

He had had many " progresses " through the 
country in life j he would have another as the 
corse was conveyed to Kentucky. "Oh, how 
sickening is the splendid pageantry I have to go 
through from this to Lexington," wrote Thomas 
Clay to his wife ; and it was a harrowing experience 
for a son, however well the ceremonies were intended. 

The Senate met at twelve o'clock. The news had 
reached it in the form of a rumor on the street and 
it immediately adjourned. The House also ad- 
journed, after the reading of the journal. President 
Fillmore, amid the general tolling of bells, closed the 
government departments. 

The next day cabinet officers, foreign ambas- 
sadors, members of the House, and many others 
made their way to the Senate chamber where the 
eulogies were to be pronounced. The death was 
announced by Mr. Clay's colleague, Joseph R. Un- 
derwood, who added a tribute, and offered resolu- 
tions embodying a proposal that a committee of six 
be appointed to superintend the funeral in Wash- 
ington, which was set for the following day, July 1st. 
He suggested further that another committee of six 
be named to accompany the remains to the place of 
sepulture, which Mr. Clay had selected, the ceme- 
tery where many of his friends and relations were 
buried in Lexington, Ky. Speeches from General 



380 HENRY CLAY 

Cass, Robert M. Hunter, John P. Hale, William H. 
Seward, George W. Jones and others followed, 
whereupon as an additional mark of respect the 
Senate adjourned. There were similar proceedings 
in the House. 

The next day the members of both houses, the 
authorities of the city of Washington, several mili- 
tary companies, — all together a large concourse 
of people, — accompanied the remains from the 
National Hotel to the Senate chamber where, in the 
presence of the President of the United States and a 
very distinguished company, the funeral services 
were held. Dr. Butler, the chaplain of the Senate, 
spoke from the text— " How is the strong staff 
broken and the beautiful rod!" The scenes at 
Washington were being repeated all over the land. 
Dr. Butler said : 

"For more than a thousand miles — East, West, 
North and South— it is known and remembered that 
at this place and hour, a nation's representatives 
assemble to do honor to him whose fame is now a 
nation's heritage. A nation's mighty heart throbs 
against this Capitol, and beats through you. In 
many cities banners droop, bells toll, cannons boom, 
funereal draperies wave. In crowded streets and 
on sounding wharves, upon steamboats and upon 
cars, in fields and in workshops, in homes, in 
schools, millions of men, women and children have 
their thoughts fixed upon this scene and say mourn- 
fully to each other, 'This is the hour in which, at 
the Capitol, the nation's representatives are bury- 
ing Henry Clay ! Burying Henry Clay ! ' Bury 
the records of your country's history — bury the 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 381 

hearts of living millions — bury the mountains, the 
rivers, the lakes, and the spreading lands from sea 
to sea, with which his name is inseparably associ- 
ated, and even then you could not bury Henry Clay 
— for he lives in other lands and speaks in other 
tongues, and to other times than ours." 1 

After these rites were said, the cortege proceeded, 
by a railway train, appropriately draped in black, 
to Baltimore, on its way to Lexington, through 
Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Utica, Syracuse, 
Eochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincin- 
nati, Louisville and Frankfort. At these, and 
many intermediate places, thousands upon thou- 
sands of people assembled to pay their last honors 
to the great statesman. The newspapers of the land, 
the pulpit, and secular associations of many kinds 
throughout these days poured out their tributes, 
which were everywhere warm, affectionate and full 
of praise. In Philadelphia, where the arrival was 
at night, a procession headed by torches was formed, 
and the iron coffin was borne to the State House to 
remain until morning under the guard of the 
Washington Grays, a prominent local military 
company. 

"The whole population here," it is said, " ap- 
peared to be gathered on the line of march, and a 
deep, reverent, eloquent silence, like the silence of 
death itself, pervaded the mighty multitude ; above 
it all, rendered more audible and impressive by the 
contrast, was heard the slow, measured tread of the 
long funeral train, the tolling bells, the booming 

1 Obsequies of Henry Clay, printed by the Common Council of 
New York. 






382 HENRY CLAY 

minute gun and the mournful roll of the muffled 
drum." * 

The next day thousands of people viewed the 
coffin, and the journey was continued by steamboat 
and railway to New York. There the body of the 
lamented statesman was deposited in the Governor's 
Room at the City Hall, to remain over Sunday, 
which, as it happened, was the Fourth of July. It 
is said that 100, 000 persons at least paid their re- 
spects to the dead, all classes coming and going in 
solemn silence, as though they were attending the 
funeral of a beloved friend. The departure from 
New York was effected on Monday morning. As 
the procession reached the boat, the band played 
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot," and there 
was not a dry eye in the assemblage. 

On the way up the Hudson the bell of the steamer 
constantly tolled, and boats which were met stopped, 
lowered their flags and sounded their bells. The 
shores of the river everywhere exhibited flags at 
half-mast, funeral arches, tolling bells, booming 
cannon and sorrowing people. Stops were made at 
some of the towns when the assembled crowds were 
allowed to come on board to view the coffin. 

Thus the cortege continued on its way, amid every 
sign of popular mourning, until it reached Lexing- 
ton. Women, who everywhere were generally 
dressed in black, wept and kissed the sable vest- 
ments hung around the coffin. Strong men stood 
beside it and burst into uncontrollable sobs. At 
sunset on Friday, July 9th, the committee of the 
Senate formally transferred the remains, by this 

1 Obsequies. 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 383 

time buried in flowers, wreaths and other emblems 
of the populace's attachment, made of cypress, ivy 
and laurel, to a committee of citizens. The chair- 
man of the senatorial delegation, Clay's colleague, 
Mr. Underwood, on this occasion said : 

" Our journey since we left Washington has been 
a continued procession. Everywhere the people 
have pressed forward to manifest their feelings 
toward the illustrious dead. Delegations from 
cities, towns and villages have waited on us. The 
pure and the lovely, the mothers and daughters of 
the land, as we passed, covered the coffin with gar- 
lands of flowers, and bedewed it with tears. It has 
been no triumphal procession in honor of a living 
man, stimulated by hopes of reward. It has been 
the voluntary tribute of a free and grateful people 
to the glorious dead." 

The speech in reply was made by Chief- Justice 
Rob^rtsoL., chairman of the Lexington Committee, 
whereupon a procession, preceded by a cavalcade 
of horsemen, was formed. Lighted by torches, it 
passed under the arches erected in honor of the dead 
statesman, whose life had brought so much renown 
to the city and the state, out to " Ashland," where 
Mrs. Clay and the members of the family awaited 
its arrival. 

The next day, Saturday, July 10th, was set for 
the funeral. Crowds came from all parts of Ken- 
tucky. The services were in charge of Eev. Edward 
F. Berkley, Rector of Christ Church in Lexington, 
by whom Mr. Clay had been baptized, and whose 
church he regularly attended when he was at home. 
The long procession was then formed and the re- 



384 HENRY CLAY 

mains were taken to the spot where they were to 
sleep in the cemetery west of the city. 1 

The large square funeral car was specially designed 
under the direction of the citizens of Lexington. It 
was drawn by eight horses, handsomely caparisoned, 
the cloth covering them being fringed with silver 
bullion. Each animal was led by a black groom in 
the funeral costume of the Moors. 

The body was temporarily interred in Mr. Clay's 
lot beside his mother's grave until a suitable tomb 
could be erected. This came in the form of a 
Corinthian column one hundred and twenty feet 
high built of Kentucky granite. To the crypt 
underneath this imposing shaft the remains were re- 
moved and placed in a marble sarcophagus which 
was the gift of a devoted friend John Struthers of 
Philadelphia. They now repose there beside Mrs. 
Clay's, her death having occurred in 1864. On the 
sarcophagus are chiseled these words from Mr. 
Clay's farewell address to the Seuate : 

"I can, with unshaken confidence, appeal to the 
Divine Arbiter for the truth of the declaration that 
I have been influenced by no impure purpose, no 
personal motive, have sought no personal aggran- 
dizement, but that, in all my public acts, I have had 

1 The day before his death he had said to his friend and col- 
league, Mr. Underwood, who sat beside him : " There may be 
some question where my remains shall be buried. Some per- 
sons may designate Frankfort. I wish to repose in the cemetery 
in Lexington, where many of ray friends and connections are 
buried." 

He had said in his farewell address to the Senate, March 31, 
1842: "When the last scene shall forever close upon us, I 
hope that my earthly remains will be laid under her [Ken- 
tucky's] green sod with those of her gallant and patriotic sons." 



THE LAST TWO YEARS 385 

a sole and single eye, and a warm, devoted heart, 
directed and dedicated to what, in my best judg- 
ment, I believed to be the true interests of my 
country." 

New York City, which had always been a centre 
for Mr. Clay's admirers, prepared special memorial 
ceremonies for July 20th. There was a handsome 
funeral car bearing a banner of white silk upon 
which these words were embroidered in black : 

"Hearts which glow for freedom's sway 
Come and mourn for Henry Clay." 

The procession included state and city officials from 
New York and neighboring states and cities, militia 
companies and other societies. It moved in fifteen 
divisions and was the greatest pageant which up to 
that time had ever taken place in New York. It 
was marked by much solemnity and an outpouring of 
sincere feeling on the part of the people. The cere- 
monies were concluded by an oration in the Park. 

Thus Mr. Clay's career came to an end in the 
midst of his country's trials, which it had been his 
self-sacrificing task at Washington for the last 
months of his life to try in some way to allay. Well 
indeed was it said, upon his funeral day in Lexing- 
ton, that, " if in future any one section of this great 
republic should be arrayed in hostility against an- 
other," the "Genius of Liberty " should come down 
" in anguish and in tears, and throwing herself 
prostrate before his tomb implore the Mighty 
Ruler of nations ... to raise up from his 
ashes another Clay." 1 

1 Last Seven Years, p. 449. 



386 HENRY CLAY 

May he not seem to have presented himself in the 
person of Abraham Lincoln ? Though Mr. Clay be 
looked upon as the man of compromise, he never 
stepped aside as much as a hair's breadth when the 
safety of the Union was at stake. 1 His ringing- 
speeches of 1850 surpass in devotion to the govern- 
ment the utterances of the Republican leaders who 
came upon the scene ten years later. Can any one 
believe for a moment that Clay, if his life had been 
cast in the later decades of the century, would have 
abated the least particle of his patriotic faith ? 

1 ''In the character of Henry Clay, that which will commend 
him most to posterity is his love of the Union, or, to take a 
more comprehensive form of expression, his patriotism, his love 
for his country, his love for his whole country. He repeatedly 
declares in his letters that on crossing the ocean to serve in a 
foreign land, every tie of party was forgotten, and that he knew 
himself only as an American. At home he could be impetuous, 
swift in decision, unflinching, of an imperative will, and yet in 
his action as a guiding statesman, whenever measures came up 
that threatened to rend the continent in twain, he was inflex- 
ible in his resolve to uphold the Constitution and the Union." 
— "A Few Words about Henry Clay," by George Bancroft, 
Century Magazine, July, 18^5, p. 481. 



CHAPTER XIV 

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 

The personality of every important character in 
history forms an interesting study, and a knowledge 
of Henry Clay's is more than usually essential be- 
cause so much of all that he was was bound up with 
this personality. 

He was preeminently an orator. His influence 
grew out of his extraordinary gift of public speech. 
As soon as it was known that he could sway large 
audiences, winning them to laughter, moving them 
to tears, arousing them to action, he was destined to 
occupy a great place in our public life. It is fre- 
quently said that this is not an age of oratory, and 
that results are achieved by more rapid and, as a 
rule, more brutal processes. If this be taken to 
mean that it is an age which is not conducive to the 
development of oratory, the charge is unquestion- 
ably true. It is probable that a man with a like 
gift in this day — if there should be another — would 
think it not worth his while to devote his talents to 
such a use. He would seek the greater gains to be 
reaped from business or law. He would despair of 
our public life from which the graces and amenities 
of debate, the reasoning habit and the high stand- 
ards of constitutional disquisition have largely de- 
parted, and he would not train himself for oratory. 

While all this is probably true, it is undeniable 



388 HENRY CLAf 

that, if such an orator as Henry Clay should appear 
upon the scene, every one would stop to hear him. 
Money getting could be postponed and all those in- 
terests which absorb Americans of this day, mak- 
ing them impatient in argument and eager to reach 
their euds rapidly, would be sent to the backgrouud, 
while they listened in rapt admiration to his sono- 
rous seuteuces aud sat in wonderment in the pres- 
ence of his splendid gifts. 

There are many to say that Clay's speeches do 
not have the vital quality of Burke's, for example, 
and of those of many of the famous orators of his- 
tory. It is likely that this judgment often springs 
from an inadequate reading of Clay, who suffers by 
comparison because his speeches have never been 
properly collected and edited, and still more because 
of the Civil War. As has been said before, this 
event wholly changed the current of our national 
life, in a singular way obscuring the reputations of 
great men who strove to avert it, and who would 
have kept the nation whole without this trial by 
fire. The objects and purposes which they had in 
view, however patriotic, were swept away, meaning 
little except to students of history, and having been 
set aside by the absorbing issues of 1860-1865, they 
cannot be restored to place in public attention or 
reverence. While Lincoln's utterances, much less 
numerous, much less finished in some regards than 
many of Clay's, seem endowed with the immortal 
quality, may it not be that this result has been ar- 
rived at principally because of the subjects to which 
they relate ! Not many claims are made for Lin- 
coln's speeches in the joint debates with Douglas. 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 389 

Yet it is to these, to the first and second inaugural 
addresses and the famous speech at Gettysburg that 
the Lincoln advocate will invariably point. 

It is said, of course, that a great part of Clay's 
power was in his incomparable voice, his facial ex- 
pression, the movements of his graceful body ; and 
there is truth in these observations, though he who 
emphasizes them is in danger of conveying a false 
impression. These traits of the orator he had in a 
remarkable degree, but he never relied upon them 
to the exclusion of the more substantial elements of 
success. He did not go into a contest without 
preparation, thinking to win by his natural gifts. 
He did not fail to read and investigate, because he 
might have moved the people before him without 
reading and investigation. There are in existence 
the most elaborate collections of notes and quota- 
tions which he made for some of his principal 
speeches. When he had not prepared himself he 
was likely to say so, thus indicating that he did not 
wish his speech to be judged by the high standards 
which he long before had set up for himself as an 
orator, and from which he never willingly made a 
departure. He had the natural fire, however, of 
Patrick Henry, with whom, on this ground, he 
may, perhaps, be more fairly compared than with 
any other American orator ; and his quickness in 
repartee and readiness in a running debate with any 
adversary, constituted him the matchless leader, 
which he never could have been merely by dint of 
skill in the studied oration. 

James O. Harrison at one time heard Mr. Clay 
declare that his habit had always been ' l never to 



390 HENKY CLAY 

attempt au argument on any matter of importance 
without having fully prepared himself." Once 
during the Tyler administration Senator Kives, of 
Virginia, launched an attack against Clay, who, 
when it was concluded, instantly rose for reply. 
His friends urged him to take time for preparation 
and made a motion to adjourn. "No," said he, 
"when I am assailed I am always ready for de- 
fense." Thomas F. Marshall, who was then in the 
House, himself an able orator, used to say that 
this was " by all odds the greatest speech he had 
ever heard from Mr. Clay." When Clay had fin- 
ished JohnQuincy Adams, who was present, grasped 
the hand of a friend and exclaimed, "That's the 
Henry Clay of 1812 ! " The speech was full of the 
natural fire of the orator's youth, when by his ap- 
peals he had led the nation into its second war of 
independence. 

Another who heard the speech said : "Mr. Clay 
not only went far beyond my expectations but in 
that reply surpassed in resistless power all I have 
ever heard, or have ever conceived of human elo- 
quence." ' 

'Harrison MS. This speech was delivered on August 19, 
1841. (Colton, Vol. V, p. 291 et seq.) It was on the subject 
of the veto of the bank bill. In it Mr. Clay originated the 
phrase " corporal's guard." The statement that this was the 
best of the orator's speeches must be taken with caution. Each 
seemed to be his best in the judgment of those who came under 
its spell. Mr. Clay himself, however, when he was asked which 
he considered "the most effective and powerful," said: 
"There is a portion of the speech on the veto of Mr. Tyler of 
the bank bill, in reply to Mr. Eives, which produced the most 
electrifying effect of anything I ever uttered. The 'nmediate 
subject was patriotism." — Mrs. Maury, Statesmen of America 
in 1846, p. 437. 






PEKSONAL CHAKACTEKISTICS 391 

It was said, and may still to-day be said with truth, 
that Clay's speeches do not exhibit profound learning. 
John Quincy Adams was accustomed to speak lightly 
of his reading, and from the Adams standpoint it 
was in essential ways deficient. It did not cover 
the ground which must have been traversed by such 
orators as Daniel Webster or Charles Sumner, but 
nevertheless Clay's addresses were very far from 
lacking intellectual appeal. They were heard with 
satisfaction and profit by Americans of the best 
mental types. It was from these classes that his 
party drew its strength. In additiou to a full ac- 
quaintance with American constitutional, political 
and economic history, his addresses reflect a gen- 
eral knowledge of the history of ancient and modern 
government in Europe. Self-educated he was, but 
he read widely and to good purpose from the point 
of view of the popular orator, and both in writing 
and speech he developed a style which was simple, 
direct and full of charm. No one could truthfully 
say that he left out of account the minds of his 
hearers while he aimed to excite their natural feel- 
ings. His was an appeal to the reason as well as to 
the emotions, and if he erred sometimes in his 
premises, or there were faults in his logic, a re- 
reading of his speeches will show that his failures 
were not so much greater than those of other men. 
Calhoun could taunt him with not having any love for 
metaphysics, Webster and Adams for no acquaint- 
ance with the classics, but in the ability to under- 
stand human character and address the common 
sense he had no superior, as they very well knew. 

During the battle of the tricksters in parliamen- 



392 HENRY CLAY 

tary rule, to delay and defeat the compromise acts 
of 1850, Clay expressed his own views respecting 
debate in a legislative chamber and he was always 
willing to abide by them. He said : "For myself 
I differ perhaps from most members of this body, or 
of any deliberative body, on this subject. I am for 
the trial of mind against mind, of argument against 
argument, of reason against reason, and when after 
such employment of our intellectual faculties, I find 
myself in the minority, I am for submitting to the 
act of the majority. I am not for resorting to ad- 
journments, calls for the yeas and nays, and other 
dilatory proceedings iu order to delay that which, 
if the Constitution has full and fair operation, must 
inevitably take place." ' 

Mr. Harrison's estimates of Clay as a public 
speaker are of interest, as they come from one who 
had long and intimate acquaintance with the great 
orator : 

t l A notion has been entertained by some who 
knew but little of his habits, or the loftiness of his 
temperament or character, that Mr. Clay was but an 
impulsive orator, — dashing and reckless, — always 
ready for a speech, a frolic, or a fight, and never 
taking time for preparation however difficult or 
weighty the subject, or the occasion. Every such 
notion is utterly unfounded and untrue. He was 
exceedingly painstaking in the ascertainment of 
facts and in his way was one of the most laborious 
and methodical of men. His way, however, his 
mode of preparation, somewhat peculiar, was the 
result of his temperament, his early training, and 
the pressure of the times under which he was reared. 

1 Coltou, Vol. VI, pp. 411-412. 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 393 

His happy adjustment by nature, of heart and brain, 
had, under the hard surroundings of his early life, 
developed in him a manhood, ever fresh, fearless, 
self-reliant, buoyant and commanding. 

" His notions of honor and duty, fashioned and 
fixed as they were by the sturdy civilization of that 
period, inspired and instinctively guided him 
throughout his after life, private as well as public. 
He, fashioned to that standard in his youth and 
tested by it, was to be the gentleman without re- 
proach, the patriot without fear. Made up as he 
was and trained as he had been, he must follow 
those notions of honor and of duty, however l rough 
hewn ' they were, and however fearful the ordeal 
through which they might lead him. He feared a 
taint upon his honor, as he understood honor, far 
more than he feared death. He never turned aside 
for any 'lion in his path.' On the contrary, 'the 
lion in his path ' gave intensity to his purpose, his 
courage, and his unflinching defiance ; and should 
he fall, as fall he might in some such encounter 
whether public or private, it should be as a martyr 
to his own high convictions. His whole career was 
in harmony with his peculiar temperament. He 
was so true to his own nature — to himself — that any 
one well acquainted with the man would have but 
little difficulty in foretelling how he would act under 
given circumstances. 

"Though one of the frankest of men, he seldom 
counseled with any one as to his duty, public or 
private; and seldom wrote any of his speeches. 
Being at an early age a deputy in the Chancery of- 
fice at Richmond, he, of course, was thrown not 
only among business men and business questions 
of that day, but among the most prominent lawyers 
and statesmen of Virginia, and at a time when the 
rights of man and the constitutional powers of the 
young republic were the absorbing questions, and 
he must then have contracted not only those exact 
business habits which characterized him in after 



394 HENRY CLAY 

life, but he must have also learned there his first 
lessons as to the rights of the people, and the duty of 
their representatives. 

"By a happy chance, that was the very school 
the best suited of all others to the natural tendencies 
of the youth. Those public questions caught his 
fancy, they seized his heart and brain, and they 
must have been the subject of his thoughts whenever 
he had time for quiet meditation. And those 
thoughts throbbing in his own brain must have ut- 
terance and in words infused with his own fire. He, 
therefore, was soon in the habit not only of prepar- 
ing his thoughts for utterance, but of declaiming 
them when alone in his room, or in the fields, or 
woods ; and this self-discipline in his youth, the 
habit of preparation, became the fixed habit of his 
life. 

u His first attempts at actual debate were in a de- 
bating society at Richmond, made up of youth of 
about his own age, and as some of them were no 
doubt well educated, a more thorough preparation 
by him was then necessary. He knew nothing of 
the logic, or rhetoric, or philosophy of the schools 
and had no Roscius or Talma to train his gesticula- 
tion, his mauner, or his voice. He, however, was 
familiar with the public questions of the day and had 
in himself what neither the schools, nor any artifi- 
cial aid could supply. Nature had trusted him with 
the key to the human heart and to the common sense 
of mankind, and he knew intuitively how and when 
to use it." 

Mr. Harrison continues his observations : 

" He seemed to have not only an instinctive con- 
sciousness of his own strength but of his own special 
capacity for leadership, and therefore he would 
take the lead, whatever the occasion, and as nat- 
urally and as gracefully as if it were his birthright. 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 395 

Few, therefore, if airy, ever were surprised that 
he had taken the place for which nature seemed to 
have designed him. Indeed, without any appear- 
ance of self-assertion on his part, and as if uucon- 
sciously to himself, there was a something in his 
presence and manner that gave to him a somewhat 
authoritative air and made him, for the time, the 
central, the commanding figure of the group about 
him. 

" Strangers, persons who never saw him, and 
who, of course, never felt the potency of his pres- 
ence and manner, can hardly understand the sort of 
impression made on others by what was called the 
magnetism of the man. They would probably infer 
from my general account of him, that there must 
have been in his presence and manner some mani- 
festation of arrogance and vanity. There was, how- 
ever, in his geueral intercourse no manifestation of 
either. I think he was as free of vanity as any one 
I ever knew. Though often with him I never knew 
him to make himself the hero of his own story, and 
when questioned, as he occasionally was by me and 
others, in my presence, in regard to any matter in 
which he had taken a prominent part, he would 
merely state the facts : the several steps by which 
results were reached, and then the naked results, 
and just as if there was nothing remarkable in his 
own part in bringiug them about. 

"But whatever the occasion, or his mood, or 
whatever the company or the subject of conversa- 
tion, there was a something in his presence and 
manner to impress those around him that, within 
his personality and beneath that manner there was 
a power, a force of character to be respected, feared, 
followed and honored. Had this quiet force been 
arrogantly or ostentatiously displayed, it would have 
broken the charm that made him so attractive and 
at the same time so commanding. I never saw an 
approach to any such display, unless possibly in 
some stormy debate, when, with a monarch's voice 



396 HENRY CLAY 

and in an attitude oi' lofty defiance, he would spurn 
assaults, whether direct, or indirect, upon his 
principles, his consistency, or his honor. 

''Probably, the idea I have attempted above to 
describe would be more readily seen by an illustra- 
tion than by my description of it. Though we were 
often together, and though we talked of any matter, 
however unimportant, that casually came up, yet I 
was never with him, whether alone or w T ith company, 
without feeling I was in the presence of a great 
power. My supposition was, that this feeling on 
my part was the result of my personal admiration, 
or possibly of some peculiarity in my own tempera- 
ment, but, on inquiry of others less emotional than 
myself, I found that in every instance the impres- 
sion made on them by his presence and manner was 
identical with that made on me. 

"The why and the wherefore were a mystery 
then, and are a mystery now, unless it be that hu- 
man nature is so organized that the weaker force is 
instinctively conscious of the fact in the presence of 
the superior force. 

" Mr. Clay's complexion was very fair. His eyes 
were gray, and when excited full of fire ; his fore- 
head high and capacious and with a tendency to 
baldness ; his nose prominent, very slightly arched 
and finely formed ; his mouth unusually large with- 
out being disfiguring ; it, however, was so large as 
to attract immediate notice, — so large indeed, that, 
as he said) he never learned how to spit. He had 
learned to snuff and smoke tobacco, and but for his 
unmanageable mouth, he would probably have 
learned to chew it also. He also could not whistle. 
On his trip to Europe, in connection with the ne- 
gotiation of the Treaty of Ghent, while he was in 
London there was a demand for Yankee Doodle. 
The bandmaster did not know the tune, but if some 
one would whistle it he promised to have it played. 
Mr. Clay had to decline but he called upon his 
negro body-servant Aaron, who whistled well, and 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 397 

the British musicians soon caught up the refrain on 
their instruments. 

"His chief physical peculiarity, however, was in 
the structure of his nervous system. It was so deli- 
cately strung that a word, a touch, a memory would 
set it in motion. Though his nervous system was 
thus sensitive, yet his emotions, however greatly 
excited, were of themselves never strong enough to 
disturb the self-poise of his deliberate judgment. 
His convictions of duty were fixed as fate, and yet, 
as I thought, he was the most emotional man I ever 
knew. I have seen his eyes iill instantly on shaking 
the hand of an old friend, however obscure, who had 
stood by him in his early struggles, and whom, after 
a long interval, he had suddenly met. I have seen 
the letter of a grandchild, then residing in a distant 
state, drop from his hand when reading it aloud to 
some members of his family, — his eyes were too full 
of tears to see, and his tongue too full of emotion to 
utter the touching words. I read the letter. There 
was not even a suggestion in it to give pain. It was 
only the loving letter of a child, full of tender mes- 
sages to her grandmother and to him. 

"His sympathies were as wide as human nature, 
and were alive not only to its struggles and its vir- 
tues, but even to its infirmities ; in case of any 
great affliction in the family of a friend or neighbor, 
his condolence was ever ready, and in a manner and 
tone of voice almost as tender, and as touching, and 
as natural as if the affliction were his own. 

"This emotional nature, so natural to him and 
always so naturally shown, was a marked character- 
istic and a great element of his power over the heart. 
His magnetic power was the natural result of the 
lofty, the unmistakably and generously tempered 
manliness of the man, — the outcrop of the great ele- 
ments that, combined, made him inevitably what he 
was. 

"The muscles of his face, even iu old age, never 
had any of the rigidity, or leathery appearance, or 



398 HENRY CLAY 

toughness, which sometimes accompanies old age. 
On the contrary, his features were apparently al- 
ways as tender and as flexible as the features of a 
child, and expressed as naturally and as readily as 
do the features of a child the emotion of a moment, 
whatever the emotion was ; and when in high de- 
bate, every muscle, his whole physical structure, 
would be alive with the lofty passion that was giv- 
ing tire and force to every thought he uttered. 

k 'l have never seen any one but himself whose 
whole physical structure so readily and so naturally 
responded to its own emotions and passions, nor 
ever heard any voice but his own, that so harmonized 
with whatever he felt and uttered. Indeed, even 
when there would seem to be no occasion for any 
great emotion, or for the display of it, yet if the 
subject presented issues of great concern to his client, 
to the public, or to himself, his heart, full of the 
subject and as if oppressed by its responsibility, 
would manifest its emotion not only in the prelimi- 
nary outline of the facts to be considered, but would 
occasionally manifest its emotion even before he had 
uttered a word. You would see the emotion in his 
whole person as he slowly rose to his feet. You would 
see it in his drooping posture, in the deathly pallor of 
his face, in his brimful eyes, in the spasmodic 
twitching of his under lip, and upon the utterance 
of the first sentence, you would hear the emotion in 
the touching tones of his magnetic voice. They all 
harmonized, and naturally, and without effort, with 
the emotions, passions and utterances of the moment. 
It was nature visibly at work, and bringing into 
harmonious action, before your own eyes, all the 
great elements, mental, moral, and physical, of his 
nature, and this rare combination of force actively 
enlisted in high debate, gave his eloquence a natural- 
ness, a concentrated earnestness and impetuosity 
that for the time was overwhelming." 

Much testimony is at hand to corroborate Mr. Har- 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 399 

rison ou the subject of Mr. Clay's voice. It was 
like some delicately attuned musical instrument, 
which he could use for the exx^ression of every emo- 
tion within the human range, while his control and 
employment not only of his hands in gesture, but 
also of other parts of his body, was developed into a 
fine ait. 

' l No such voice was ever heard elsewhere, ' ' wrote 
Ben Perley Poore. "It was equally distinct and 
clear, whether at its highest key or lowest whisper ; 
rich, musical, captivating. His action was the 
spontaneous offspring of the passing thought. He 
gesticulated all over. The nodding of his head 
hung on a long neck, his arms, hands, fingers, feet, 
and even his spectacles, his snuff-box and his pocket 
handkerchief aided him in debate. He stepped 
forward and backward, and from the right to the 
left with effect. Every thought spoke ; the whole 
body had its story to tell and added to the attractions 
of his able argument. ' ' 

A striking evidence of his power of making his 
thoughts speak through his body was given in a 
meeting held in the public square in Lexington in 
May, 1843. The address was never published. It 
was made to repel the attacks directed against him 
at that time in his own state. He could not rest 
quietly under them. Although his friends tried to 
dissuade him from taking notice of the malignant 
authors of the charges, he sought this opportunity 
to appear in his own defense. He began : 

" Fellow citizens — I am now an old man — quite an 
old man." Here he bowed himself very low, as if 
bent with the burdens of age. " But yet it will be 



400 HEKBY CLAY 

found," he continued, " that I am not tooold to vin- 
dicate my principles, to stand by my friends, or to 
defend myself." 

His voice was growing louder each moment and 
he was elevating himself in the most impressive way 
as he went on to his climax. 

"I feel like an old stag which has been long 
coursed by the hunters and the hounds, through 
brakes and briers, and o'er distant plains, and has 
at last returned to his ancient lair to lay himself 
down and die. And yet the vile curs of party are 
barking at my heels, and the bloodhounds of per- 
sonal malignity are aiming at my throat. I scorn 
and defy them as I ever did." 

As he uttered these concluding words, he extended 
his frame to its greatest limit, stretched his arms, 
his hands widely spread, above his head until his 
tall person seemed twice its normal height. The ef- 
fect, it is needless to say, was greatly enhanced by 
the device. He knew how, always, to suit his action 
to an oratorical situation. 

Mr. Clay was never given to quotation from 
others. As Mr. Winthrop truly says, his own store- 
house was so full that he had little need to bor- 
row. When he attempted to repeat even familiar 
passages, he did it awkwardly and often incor- 
rectly. 

" What is it," he asked Senator Evans of Maine 
one day, u that Shakespeare says about a rose smell- 
ing as sweet? Write me down those lines, and be 
sure you get them exactly right, and let them be in 
a large, legible hand." 

Evans sent to the library for a copy of Shake - 






PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 401 

speare to make sure of his ground, aud then wrote 
the lines as he had been directed : 

' What's in a name ? That which we call a rose 
By any other name would smell as sweet." 

When Clay came to the place in his speech at which 
he wished to make use of the quotation, however, he 
stumbled over his notes and then unable to find the 
written words, exclaimed — "A rose will smell the 
same call it what you will." His friends had many 
such anecdotes to tell about him. 

His figure was a lasting memory to Mr. Winthrop, 
as it was to all who ever came into contact with him. 
"As he sometimes sauntered across the Senate 
chamber, taking a pinch of snuff out of one friend's 
box or offering his own box to another," says this 
fine old Massachusetts Whig in his Memoir of the 
great Kentuckian, u he was a picture of affability 
and nonchalance. He had the genial, jaunty air of 
Lord Palmerston, whose peer he would have been as 
a cabinet minister or in Parliament, had lie chanced 
to have been born an Englishman, or an Irishman, 
instead of an American." 

Mr. Schurz formed this just estimate of Henry 
Clay as an orator : " They [his speeches] were the 
impassioned reasoning of a statesman intensely 
devoted to his country, and to the cause he thought 
right. There was no appearance of artifice in it. 
They made every listener feel that the man who ut- 
tered them was tremendously in earnest, and that 
the thoughts he expressed had not only passed 
through his brain, but also through his heart. 
They were the speeches of a great debater, and, as 



402 HENRY CLAY 

may be said of those of Charles James Fox, cold 
print could never do them justice. To be fully ap- 
preciated they had to be heard on the theatre of 
action, in the hushed Senate chamber, or before the 
eagerly upturned faces of assembled multitudes. To 
feel the full charm of his lucid explanations and his 
winning persuasiveness, or the thrill which was 
flashed through the nerves of his hearers by the 
magnificent sunbursts of his enthusiasm, or the 
tierce thunder-storms of his anger and scorn, one 
had to hear that musical voice cajoling, flattering, 
inspiring, overawing, terrifying in turn . . . 
the whole man a superior being while he spoke." 1 

Mr. Clay's personal charm was as great in con- 
versation as upon the platform. Horace Greeley 
tells of a member of Congress of the opposite party, 
who refused the offer of an introduction, lest he fall 
under the spell of the man and be swept away by 
admiration. It was General Glascock, who had 
been elected a representative from Georgia during 
the excitement over the removal of the deposits from 
the United States Bank. 

u General," said a friend at a reception in Wash- 
ington, u shall I make you acquainted with Mr. 
Clay?" 

" No, sir," was the prompt and stern response. 
" I choose not to be fascinated and moulded by him, 
as friend and foe appear to be, and I shall therefore 
decline his acquaintance." 2 

A venerable earl in England who was too feeble 
to come to pay his respects to the American com- 

1 Schurz, Vol. I, pp. 325-326. 

2 Home* of American Statesmen, p. 380. 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 403 

niissioners after the successful negotiation of the 
Treaty of Ghent, and to whose home they therefore 
repaired, was subsequently asked which one of the 
number he preferred. 

" Ah," he exclaimed, " I enjoyed them all but I 
liked the Kentucky man best." 

"I have admired and trusted many statesmen," 
said Horace Greeley. "I profoundly loved Henry 
Clay. ... I loved him for his generous nature, 
his gallant bearing, his thrilling eloquence and his 
lifelong devotion to what I deemed our country's 
unity, prosperity and just renown." 1 

Charles Dickens, in describing various American 
statesmen, contented himself when he came to Clay 
by saying that he was a " perfectly enchanting and 
irresistible man." 2 

As has been remarked many times elsewhere in 
this account of his life, his friends were the most 
devoted ever found in the train of any public man 
in American history. 3 Ladies would have taken off 
their cloaks to make a silken way for him in the 
streets ; men would have died cheerfully to have 
saved his life, or even to have accomplished his ele- 
vation to the presidency. They were constantly 
sending him valuable gifts and other tokens of their 
attached affections. Few at this day can compre- 

1 Recollect ions, p 166. 

2 Forster, Life of Dickens, p. 349. 

3 Lord Morpeth made an exception for Canning in England. 
In his Travels in America he wrote: " I certainly never met 
any public man, either in his country or in mine, always ex- 
cepting Mr. Canning, who exercised such evident fascination 
over the minds and affections of his friends and followers as 
Henry Clay. I thought his society most attractive, easy, simple 
and genial with great natural dignity." 



404 HENRY CLAY 

heod how valuable a boon the Cumberland Road 
was to the people of the Ohio and the Mississippi 
Valleys at the time it was built. Clay struggled 
year after year to extend and complete it. In 1820 
a monument was placed upon this highway near 
Wheeliug in commemoration of his efforts in its be- 
half. The front of the base bears this inscription : 

11 This monument was erected by Moses 
and Lydia Shepherd as a testimony of re- 
spect to Henry Clay, the eloquent defender 
of national rights and national independ- 
ence. ' ? 

On another side of the stone these words were in- 
scribed : 

"Time brings every amelioration and 
refinement most gratifyiug to rational man, 
and the humblest tlower freely plucked 
under the tree of liberty is more to be de- 
sired than all the trappings of royalty. 
" Anno Domini, 1820." 

No man may fully comprehend all of what there 
was in this remarkable personality to arouse such 
sentiments in men and women for whom he had done 
nothing, whom, in great numbers of instances, he 
did not know, indeed had not even seen. Perhaps 
something of the spell could have been communi- 
cated to later generations had the inventor of the 
phonograph contributed his device to the world at 
an earlier day. What would not now be given for 
a talking-machine, imperfect a contrivance as it 
is, which would reproduce the speeches of Washing- 



PEESONAL CHAEACTEEISTICS 405 

ton, Clay, Webster and Lincoln as they fell from 
their own lips? 

Yet with all these friends Clay had the most ma- 
lignant enemies. Perhaps this was inevitable. A 
man of decided opinions, who is always fearless in 
expressing them, must expect to meet this fate in 
public life. He is bitterly hated by some for the 
very reasons that he is dearly loved by others. 
Clay's enemies, however, feared him and plied their 
arts behind his back by foul means. The great lie 
about bargain and corruption was circulated in dark 
places in the night. No one could be found to stand 
sponsor for it. It was denied in the most conclu- 
sive manner, again and again, only to be brought 
out by the Jackson party in some new backwoods 
settlement to bias the minds of ignorant people. 
Thurlow Weed and the men who accomplished 
Clay's defeat in the Harrisburg Convention in 1840, 
and nominated General Harrison, feared to come 
out into the open. They achieved their objects by 
subterranean schemes. Clay was not a match for 
such chicanery. It had not flourished in the age in 
which he had come forward as a public man. It 
was not any essential part of the equipment of the 
" Virginians." For the "trial of mind against 
mind" he contended consistently, and he had no 
favors to ask of any one in such a contest. 

In an age in which women disturb themselves in 
regard to the franchise, and assert that their " sex" 
is deficient in appreciation of political matters, 
simply because they do not have the opportunities 
and experiences of men, it is worth while to note 
the interest with which they pursued the career of 



406 HENRY CLAY 

Henry Clay. They flocked to hear his speeches ; 
they read his speeches. No restriction upon their 
suffrage " rights " interfered with their enjoyment 
of the proceedings of Congress when he took part 
in the debates. His words, some one has said, were 
"like the sweetest notes of the lark in the ears of 
the whole female sex." 

Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith's enthusiasm over- 
flowed whenever she spoke of him. " With his un- 
rivaled and surpassing talents, his winning aM 
irresistible manners," she exclaimed one time in 
1831, " what is it he cannot do ! " x 

Once when he was visiting at her home during 
his term as Secretary of State she wrote : * ' Never 
did I see this great man (for in native point of mind 
I never knew his equal) so interesting — nay, fasci- 
nating. I had heard of his possessing this power of 
captivation, which no one who was its object could 
resist, and I have before seen and felt its influence, 
but never in the same degree as upon this occasion." 

He was one of the most brilliant of conversational- 
ists, and could for hours analyze the characters of 
Washington, Jefferson, Madison and the early 
Presidents, and detail the history of their adminis- 
trations. He punctuated his spee- hes with original 
statement and anecdote. He sat upon his favorite 
seat on the sofa" in the firelight, or rather was " re- 
clining" there. " How graceful he looked 
face flushed with exercise and his countenance 
mated with some strong emotion. . . So in- 

teresting was his conversation, so captivating his 
frank, cordial manner, that I could almost have 

1 First Forty Years, p. 325. 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 407 

said with Mr. Lyon — ' I could have listeued all night 
and many nights with delight ' — and with Mr. Ward 
have exclaimed, ' What a treat ! It is indeed the 
feast of reason and the flow of soul.- " l 

What another woman thought of Clay at a later 
day is to be found in the recollections of American 
statesmen, by Mrs. Sarah Myttou Maury. This 
talented English lady's observations cover 1846. 2 
She saw Clay in retirement at "Ashland." It 
seemed like "Mount Vernon " to his countrymen and 
they made their pilgrimages thither in the same 
spirit. He was undoubtedly "the most popular 
man in America." Women both in England and 
the United States she thought naturally conserva- 
tive, and they were generally Whigs. "A lovely 
and graceful ornament, the ladies of America," 
she said, "are the chaplet of roses in which is 
wreathed the name of Henry Clay." 

They all told Mrs. Maury : "You cannot go back 
to your country without going to 'Ashland.' You 
never heard such a voice, you never knew such a 
man in England as our Mr. Clay." 

"All the children born in 1845 and 1846 are, I 
believe, called after him," she observed. "There 
is a little generation of two-year-old Henry Clays. 
Some ladies of Ithaca lavished upon me every sort 
of hospitality and kindness. 'How,' said I on 
parting, ' shall I repay you for so much goodness ? ' 
'You are going to see Mr. Clay; ask him for an 
autograph and send it to us : you will have done 
much more for us than we have done for you.' " 

1 First Forty Years, p. 298 et seq. 

2 The Statesmen of America in 1846, p. 422 et seq. 



408 HENEY CLAY 

Mrs. Maury had seen men of " firm and manly 
minds weep at the recollection of Mr. Clay's defeat 
in 1844." "If it were possible," however, she con- 
tinues, "that circumstance has increased his popu- 
larity, and has won for him the most unusual and 
extraordinary attachment throughout the Union that 
probably ever fell to the lot of any man, except the 
revered Washington. His character, manners, ap- 
pearance, voice, nay, even his dress had been 
minutely described to me long before I saw him ; 
every anecdote of his life is public property ; his 
house, his farm, his domestic circle all belong to 
society at large, to the country I might say ; and 
many could relate a few words or syllables uttered 
to them or their friends, or perhaps to indifferent 
persons, which they had by some fortunate chance 
caught as they fell from his honeyed lips." 

The visit to " Ashland" was no disappointment 
to Mrs. Maury. She was admitted by an old negro 
who explained that "Marster" was at home. Mr. 
Clay himself came at once to assist the guest to 
alight. When they had gone into the sitting-room, 
he read her letters of introduction. "You have 
about five thousand relations in Virginia and Ken- 
tucky, ' 9 he remarked laughing. ' ' Are you going to 
see them all? I have known many of them and 
they are all endorsed with virtue." 

The visitor spent a number of happy hours in the 
family. When many were present, Mrs. Clay 
would say, "Take him into the garden and talk 
with him there, for I know you wish it, and I will 
trust him with you." 

Then they went into the garden and he pointed 



PEKSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 409 

out to the gnest the trees which he had planted with 
his own hands, cut for her " every flower" that she 
"looked upon or touched," conducted her to his 
stables to show her his fine cattle and his pets, and 
spoke to her on subjects of American and English 
politics. He nearly always " carried in his hand a 
full-blown rose with a short stem and frequently ad- 
dressed himself to its perfumed cup." 

In reply to an inquiry, he attributed much of his 
success as an orator to " a voice peculiarly adapted 
to produce the impressions I wished in public 
speaking ; now its melody, its music is gone." But 
"all this was said," it seemed to Mrs. Maury, 
"as if in mockery, in sounds of exquisite sweet- 
ness. ' ' 

A granddaughter with light blue eyes and flaxen 
hair, almost the image of the old statesman, would 
climb upon his knees when he sat down and make 
her way to his shoulder to twine her arms around 
his neck, play with his hair and kiss his head and 
face all over. When he walked she clasped his 
knees. "He called her ' Sophy J in the softest ac- 
cents ever heard, and she ran away in childish play- 
fulness, so to be called again." When Mrs. Maury 
left, as he placed her in the carriage, he held both 
her hands "in the strong grasp of friendship." 
"Let us trust," said he, "that we may meet again, 
either here or elsewhere ; and send those boys of 
yours to St. Louis, and let them come to me, and I 
will do all I can for them, and God in Heaven bless 
you." 

No human being, man or woman, could fail to be 
fascinated by such a person. His words lingered on 



410 HENRY CLAY 

Mrs. Maury's ear, and dwelt in her heart as long as 
she lived. 

The enmities which pursued Mr. Clay through 
life, when they did not relate to the " corrupt bar- 
gain," found expression in attacks upon his private 
character. Mrs. Maury's, as well as many similar 
pictures, should dispose of such calumnies in so far 
as they relate to the gentleness and charm of his 
domestic relations. 

"He has from nature a fund of tenderness and 
sensibility,"' wrote Mrs. Smith in 1829. " Never 
can I forget the tears he shed over his dying infant, 
as it lay in my lap, and he kneeled by my side. 
With what deep tenderness did he gaze on it, until 
unable to witness its last agonies, he impressed a 
long tender kiss on its pale lips, murmuring out, 
' Farewell, my little one,' and left the chamber ; and 
the next morning when obliged to speak to me 
about the funeral he walked the room for some 
time, in mournful silence, as if struggling to com- 
pose his feelings, so as to be able to give his direc- 
tions with calmness." ] 

That he played cards for money, especially in his 
youth ; that he raised horses for the race-track ; 
that he was a duelist ; and that he owned slaves, 
were subjects which engaged the attention of his 
foes. Were we to make a catalogue of the vices of 
oar leading public men, not more than a few of 
them would be found to be so free from serious re- 
proach on moral grounds. Games of chance were 
general pastimes in the early history of America, 
and we are not sufficiently free from their influences 

1 First Forty Years, pp. 301-302. 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 411 

to day to be able to boast of our superior position. 
The racing of horses was an amusement for every 
inhabitant of England and America for many gen- 
erations, and it is by no means certain that it has 
not advantages over most of our newer forms of 
sport. Mr. Clay heartily denounced dueling, though 
in his early life his ardent temperament and the 
custom of his neighborhood made it difficult to re- 
sist it under great provocation. 1 He sincerely de- 
nounced slavery, though he continued to own 
negroes, and as late as 1850 spoke to his son Thomas 
about purchasing a few more because of the impos- 
sibility of hiring labor in Kentucky. 

His negroes enjoyed only the kindest treatment. 
Mrs. Clay did everything for their comfort in illness 
and old age. Aaron and Charles followed Mr. Clay 
faithfully on his journeys, and not one at "Ash- 
land " could be persuaded to leave so good a home 
even after he was emancipated. Clay's friends were 
constantly making him gifts of all kinds in testimony 
of their affection, and one in Alabama left him by 
will twenty-five or thirty slaves. He at once 
paid their way to New Orleans, put them upon a 
ship and sent them to Liberia. 2 

In his last will of July 10, 1851, Mr. Clay made 
careful stipulations, similar to those which he 
recommended to the state of Kentucky, concerning 
the general emancipation of his slaves and their 
transportation to Africa. Such as were born after 

1 It must be remembered that Abraham Lincoln once went 
out to fight and for a much smaller matter than any which ever 
called Henry Clay. 

2 This fact is meutioned in his speech as president of the 
American Colonization Society at Washington, 1827. 



412 HENRY CLAY 

January 1, 1850, he specified should be free, the 
males at twenty-eight and the females at twenty- 
five. For three years prior to this time they should 
be hired for wages which, forming a fund, should 
be used to defray the cost of carrying them out of 
the country. Again, their children should be free 
at birth and put under a system of apprenticeship 
until they should reach the age of twenty -one, when 
they in turn should be deported to Africa. If slaves 
were sold, he directed that " the members of fam- 
ilies shall not be separated without their consent." 

It was said during his life, and the statement was 
repeated after his death, that Mr. Clay was given to 
over-indulgence in liquors. His friend and ex- 
ecutor, Mr. Harrison, absolutely denies it. Mr. 
Clay was, of course, not a total abstainer at a time 
when the use of wine was general, if not universal, 
but that he ever injured his powers by intemper- 
ance is impossible to prove. One after another of 
these charges, made as they were, in the heat of 
party strife, when we judge Clay by the standards 
of the community and the time in which he lived, 
falls to the ground and needs no serious treatment 
at the hands of his biographers. 

It was likewise said that Clay was lacking in re- 
ligious sentiment and that his thought of such mat- 
ters came at the last hour. No reader of his speeches 
can escape the conclusion that he always had great 
reverence for the God reigning over all ; his al- 
lusions to the hand of Providence are frequent and 
bear evidence of flowing from a sincere heart. 

Mr. Clay became a communicant of the Episcopal 
Church in 1847. He had been a pewholder in 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 413 

Christ Church, Lexington, from the time of his 
marriage, was a constant attendant there when at 
home, and was always deeply interested in its wel- 
fare. His father-in-law, Colonel Hart, was a mem- 
ber of this church, the first Episcopal church in 
Kentucky, and a liberal friend to it. Mr. Clay was 
baptized in the parlor at " Ashland, 7 ' June 22, 
1847, and the rector of Christ Church, the Rev. 
Edward F. Berkley, who officiated, gave an ac- 
count of the ceremony. It had been stated that 
Mr. Clay had been immersed in a pond on his estate, 
and Mr. Berkley wrote to one who had made in- 
quiry concerning the truth of this report: "I 
baptized Mr. Clay in his parlor at ' Ashland,' at 
the same time administering the same ordinance to 
his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Thomas H. Clay, and 
four of her children, on the 22d of June, 1847, a few 
special friends being present. The water was ap- 
plied by the hand, out of a large cut-glass urn which 
was numbered among his many rare presents and 
had been given him by a manufacturer of such 
wares in Pittsburg. It was said that this was the 
largest piece of cut glass then in existence. It may 
interest you to know that in the baptismal service 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church there are asked 
certain questions which the candidate is supposed 
to answer from the book. Seeing that Mr. Clay did 
not have a Prayer- Book in his hand, I suggested 
that the use of one might enable him more readily 
to reply to the questions. He replied, ' I think I 
shall be able to answer them,' and the readiness 
with which he answered, and his familiarity with 
the service gave evidence that he had made it a 



414 HENRY CLAY 

personal study and was ready to stand by his 
declaration. ' ' 

Mr. Clay then was seventy years old. He had 
always been interested in religious subjects, but his 
life was spent amid the turmoil of politics for so 
many years that he felt the time had not come for 
the profession of his faith. In the Senate, in 1832, 
when he recommended a day of fasting and prayer 
on account of the approach of the Asiatic cholera, 
he said : 

" I am a member of no religious sect, and I am 
not a professor of religion. I regret that I am not. 
I wish that I was, aud I trust that I shall be. I have, 
and always have had, a profound regard for Chris- 
tianity, the religion of my fathers, and for its rites, 
its usages, and its observances. Among these, that 
which is proposed in this resolution, has always com- 
manded the respect of the good, and the devout, and 
I hope it will obtain the concurrence of the Senate." 

Many extracts from Mr. Clay's speeches could be 
given to show his religious sympathy. He always 
felt and exhibited profound respect for the religious 
beliefs of others, and his charity extended alike to 
Catholic and Jew. The only daughter of his be- 
loved daughter, Mrs. Erwin, wrote to him of her 
desire to become a nun, and in reply he said : 

"Your happiness, my dear grandchild, has ever 
been an object of intense anxiety and solicitude to 
us. Tf it is to be promoted by the execution of the 
purpose you have in view, I would not, if I could, 
dissuade you from it. I have no prejudice against 
the Catholic religion. On the contrary, I sincerely 
believe that Catholics who are truly religious are as 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 415 

sure of eternal happiness in another world as the 
most pious Protestants. All that I hope is that you 
will not act on any sudden impulse, or ill-considered 
and immature resolution, but that you will deliber- 
ately, and again and again examine your own heart, 
and consult your best judgment before you consum- 
mate your intention. Write me at Washington, 
and, in the event of your taking the veil, let us 
know what provision exists for your support and 
comfort, and whether any, or what pecuniary aid 
may be proper, or expedient from your friends." 

It was reported that Mr. Clay, in a speech in the 
Senate, had used the word " Jew" as a term of re- 
proach and the following letter from Solomon Etting, 
of Baltimore, and Mr. Clay's reply, are of interest : 

"Baltimore, July 15, 1832. 
"Dear Sir: 

1 1 You know that I am your friend, and, 
therefore, I write to you freely. Several of the re- 
ligious societies to which I belong, myself included, 
feel both surprised and hurt by the manner in which 
you introduced the expression ' the Jew ' in debate 
in the Senate of the United States, evidently apply- 
ing it as a reproachful designation of a man whom 
vop considered obnoxious in character and conduct. 
( 'I do not know the person you allude to. The 
term 'the Jew,' as used by you, is considered il- 
liberal. If therefore you have no antipathy to the 
people of lhat religious society, I can readily be- 
lieve you will have no objection to explain to me, 
by a line, what induced the expression. 

" I am, with respect and esteem, 
" Your obt. st., 

"Sol. Etting. 
"Hon. H. Clay, 

"U. S. Senate, Washington." 



416 HEXRY CLAY 

la answer to this letter Mr. Clay wrote : 

a Washington, 16th July, 1832. 
"My dear Sir : 

"I regret extremely to perceive from your 
letter of yesterday that you have thought it possible 
that a remark of mine applied to a subordinate offi- 
cer of the customs, who was in attendance here, was 
liable to an unfavorable interpretation in respect to 
Jews in general. Nothing could have been further 
from my intention. The remark was intended to 
describe a person, and not a nation. It was strictly, 
moreover, defensive. Some of my friends who were 
in the Senate had been attacked by General Hayne, 
as I thought rudely, for the assistance which they 
had rendered about the tariff. 

" In reply, I said that they were not the only per- 
sons attending on that object, but that on the other 
side Moses Myers (or Myers Moses, for I do not know 
his proper designation) had been summoned by the 
Secretary of the Treasury, and might be seen daily 
skipping about the House, and I proceeded to de- 
scribe his person. 

"I judge men, not exclusively by their nation, 
religion, etc., but by their personal conduct. 

"I have always had the happiness to enjoy the 
friendship of many Jews, among whom one of the 
Gratzs of Lexington, formerly of Philadelphia, 
stands in the most intimate and friendly relations to 
me, but I cannot doubt that there are bad Jews, as 
well as bad Christians, and bad Mohammedans. 

"I hope, my dear sir, that you will consider this 
letter perfectly satisfactory. 

" With great regard, 

" I am truly yours, 

"H. Clay. 

" Solomon Etting, Esq." 

In 1 849 Mr. Clay was a lay delegate to the Dio- 
cesan Convention at Frankfort, and it was said 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 417 

that " tli is great and good man entered into the de- 
liberations of the convention with all the interest 
and animation he was wont to manifest on every 
subject which concerned the welfare of his fellow 
men. ' ' 

Unlike most Kentuckians, Mr. Clay was enabled 
to go through life without a military title. No one 
ever called him ' ' Colonel ' 7 ; he was always Mr. 
Clay. Being a kind, sympathetic neighbor, he was 
greatly beloved in Lexington. The interests of the 
town were very dear to him. For many years he was 
a trustee of Transylvania University, and at one time 
was a professor of law in this college which was 
the "pride and hope of the common weal th." It 
was "the first temple of science erected in the 
wilds of the West" he once wrote his friend Sena- 
tor Johnston, when bespeaking for it a favor at the 
hands of Congress. To his sense of propriety and 
his interest in the University, that institution owed 
a legacy which came to it in a time of great financial 
difficulty. Among the wealthy citizens of Lexing- 
ton was Colonel James Morrison, a friend and client 
of Mr. Clay, upon whom he called to write his will. 
After having provided for his family, there was 
still a large sum of money undevised. Of this 
Colonel Morrison asked to be allowed to make 
one of Mr. Clay's sons the legatee, that son hav- 
ing been named for Colonel Morrison. Mr. Clay 
promptly declined the gift, saying that Transyl- 
vania University would be a proper beneficiary. 
This suggestion was accepted and the pressing needs 
of the college were thus relieved. ' 

In all business matters Mr. Clay was most method- 



418 HENRY CLAY 

ical and, though twice heavily embarrassed from 
having become surety for others, his credit was 
never impaired. His uniform custom was to pay a 
debt as soon as it was incurred, and his style of liv- 
ing was never marred by ostentation. ' ' In this 
connection," says Mr. Harrison, "it may not be 
amiss to notice a document, probably the last one 
ever executed by Mr. Clay, which illustrates more 
forcibly than any other I have ever seen, not only 
his exactness in business matters, but his sense of 
justice and the generosity of his nature in urging 
the fulfilment of a verbal promise he had made 
some years before. This document bears no date. 
His son Thomas, by whom it was written at his 
father's bedside, and at his dictation, informed me 
that it was subscribed to only a few days before his 
death. The document referred to, now before me, 
is as follows : 

" 'Memoranda of H. Clay 

" ( I leave with you [his son Thomas] a check on 
Messrs. Corcoran & Riggs for any balance standing 
to my credit in the books of their bank at the time 
you present the check. The balance now is about 
sixteen hundred dollars, but it may be diminished 
before you have occasion to apply for it. 

" 'Mr. Underwood will draw from the secretary 
of the Senate any balance due me there and pay it 
over to you. 

" ' Out of these funds I wish you to pay Dr. Hall's 
bill, the apothecary's bill, and Dr. Francis Jack- 
son's bill, of Philadelphia. 

" ' Whatever may be necessary to pay those debts, 
and may be necessary to bear your expenses to Ken- 
tucky, had better be appropriated and reserved ac- 
cordingly, and the balance to be converted in a bank 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 419 

check on New York which will be safer to carry and 
more valuable in Kentucky. 

Ui I have settled with James G. Marshall, my 
servant, and at the end of this month he will have 
paid me all that I have advanced him, and I shall 
owe him two dollars. The deed for his lot in De- 
troit, which he assigned to me as security for being 
his endorser on a note in bank, is in my little trunk 
in your mother's room in a bundle marked, " Notes 
and valuable papers." I wish the deed taken oat 
and delivered to James, as the matter is settled. 

" ' The Messrs. Hunter who bought my Illinois 
laud, have been very punctual in paying me the 
purchase money as it became due heretofore. 

" ' The last payment of two thousand dollars is due 
me at Christmas. They have written me that they 
will come over and pay it, and at the same time re- 
ceive a pair of Durham calves as a present which I 
promised them. I wish that promise fulfilled. The 
heifer I bought from Mr. Hunt, a descendant of the 
imported cow, Lucretia, I design as one of the ani- 
mals to be presented. 

" i There is a note for upward of a thousand dol- 
lars among my papers, in the pocketbook, well se- 
cured and payable in New Orleans next November. 
My executors ought to send it there for collection. 

" <H. Clay.'" 

Another instance of his conscientious sense of 
honor in business matters is found in a fact con- 
nected with the failure of his son Thomas, while en- 
gaged in the manufacture of hemp. The young man 
owed his father a larger sum than the aggregate of 
his indebtedness to all other creditors, yet Mr. Clay 
gave every dollar of his share of the proceeds of the 
sale of the effects to those creditors. 

A part, at least, of Mr. Clay's power of winning 
and holding friends was due to his ability to pro- 



420 HENKY CLAY 

nounce their names, to remember faces and to utter 
the apt word or phrase at the right moment. 

Hamilton Fish used to recall a happy instance of 
this kind at a public reception in New York City 
in 1835. Fish was chairman of the Whig commit- 
tee appointed to receive the great leader. There was 
an old Virginian named Hackett who had much po- 
litical influence in one of the wards of the city. Mr. 
Fish knew him to be an an ti- Clay man and, wishing 
to conciliate him, brought him up and introduced 
him by name. Clay in his beautiful voice spoke to the 
old fellow, who was now compelled to say something. 

"Mr. Clay," he remarked awkwardly, " aren't 
you very tired of shaking hands with so many peo- 
ple % " " Oh, no, sir," Clay replied. " How can I 
be tired when my fellow citizens have been at such 
trouble to call upon me? Besides, Mr. Hackett, 
you must remember that I come from a state where 
men never tire." 

"That's so," said the man, captivated imme- 
diately. " Old Virginny never tire." l 

Once during a visit to Mississippi Mr. Clay 
stopped for a few minutes at a place called Clinton. 
A crowd gathered around the train and an old man 
with one eye made his way to the front. 

"Don't introduce me," he said, "for I want to 
see if Mr. Clay will know me." 

"Where did I last see you?" asked Mr. Clay, 
taking the old man's hand. 

"In Kentucky," he answered. 

" Have you lost that eye since I saw you t " 

"Yes." 

1 Interview with Fish in New York Tribune, January, 1879. 









PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 421 

" Turn the good eye to me that I may see your 
profile." 

"I have it," said Clay. "Did you not give me 
a verdict as a juror at Frankfort, Ky., twenty-one 
years ago?" 

"I did, I did ! " exclaimed the man in delight. 

" And is not your name Hardwicke ? " 

"It is, " and turning to his friends he said tri- 
umphantly, "Didn't I tell you that Harry Clay 
would know me, though he hadn't seen me for over 
twenty years f Great men never forget faces." 

Men in Mr. Clay's audiences often walked thirty 
or even fifty miles to hear him speak. They 
were in a sense the delegates from their little com- 
munities and for days after their return they were 
obliged to detail the account of their trip, — how 
Clay had looked and what he had said. To multi- 
tudes who could never see or hear him, his name 
thus became a household word. 

Mr. Clay used to take much delight in annoying 
James Buchanan, both because of his eccentricities 
and the fact that he seemed to have had a hand in 
spreading the ' ' corrupt bargain ' ' story. Buchanan 
had been a Federalist and in the Senate he was once 
called upon to defend himself against a charge of 
disloyalty during the War of 1812. He stated on 
this occasion that he had joined a company of vol- 
unteers at the time of the British attack upon Bal- 
timore. "True," he added, "I was not in any 
engagement, as the British had retreated before I 
arrived." 

i i You marched to Baltimore though ? ' ' Clay in- 
terposed. 



422 HENRY CLAY 

Yes," answered Buchanan, promptly. 



a 

" Armed and equipped I " 



" Yes, armed and equipped." 

"But the British had retreated when you ar- 
rived ! " pursued Mr. Clay. 

"Yes." 

"Then," continued Clay, " will the senator from 
Pennsylvania be good enough to inform us whether 
the British retreated in consequence of his valiantly 
marching to the relief of Baltimore, or whether he 
marched to the relief of Baltimore in consequence 
of the British having already retreated? " 

The galleries broke out into loud laughter and 
Buchanan boiled with anger, but he wisely re- 
frained from undertaking a reply. 

Once Clay wished to bring some of the Democratic 
leaders into a discussion. He charged them with 
lying back while they sent their inferiors out upon 
the skirmish liue. "Come out!" said the great 
Whig. " Come out like men and defend your posi- 
tion ! Let us hear from you ! I call for the leaders 
of the party." 

Silas Wright and James Buchanan sat near to- 
gether. It was evident that Clay directed his re- 
marks at them. Wright looked up and then 
resumed his writing. It would have been better if 
Buchanan had pursued the same course, but he was 
provoked to say : 

" I am surprised at the language used by the gen- 
tleman from Kentucky. He knows well, and the 
Senate can bear me witness, that I am prompt and 
direct in expressing my opinions on subjects as they 
arise, but I choose to take my own time and to con- 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 423 

suit iny own counsels. The gentleman from Ken- 
tucky need not expect to force me into this discus- 
sion, or any other, till I choose to engage in it." 

Mr. Clay in his softest and most charming tones 
assured Mr. Buchanan that he had intended no 
reference to him. " Far from it," he continued de- 
liberately, articulating each word. "I called for 
the leaders of the party." 

Buchanan appealed to the Senate, declaring that 
the senator from Kentucky had fixed his eyes upon 
him, to which Clay blandly replied that he could 
easily conceive of the gentleman falling into error. 
"I often suppose," said he, " that the senator is 
looking at me when in fact he looks quite another 
way," a reference to Buchanan's oblique vision, 
which was hugely enjoyed. 

A friend afterward took Clay a little to task for 
the sally but he had no regrets. " Confound him ! " 
he exclaimed, recalling the Pennsylvania's part in 
circulating the "corrupt bargain" story, "he 
writes letters. ' ' 

Once John W. Forney, the newspaper editor of 
Philadelphia, went with Edwin Forrest, the great 
American tragedian, to call upon Clay in Washing- 
ton. The conversation turned to Senator Soule, of 
Louisiana, of whom Forney spoke favorably. Clay's 
eyes flashed. They had lately had some unpleas- 
ant passages in the Senate. "He is nothing but 
an actor, sir, ' ' exclaimed Clay, ' ' a mere actor. ' ' 
Then, suddenly recollecting Forrest's presence, he 
added with a graceful motion of the hand, address- 
ing the tragedian, — " I mean, my dear sir, a mere 
French actor." 



424 HENRY CLAY 

Mr. Clay had a large collection of snuff-boxes, as 
well as of canes, to distribute by will among his vari- 
ous friends. He, however, did not take the weed to 
excess lest it injure his splendid voice. On this 
point he used to tell a story of General Dearborn. 
It was the day after the dinner in Washington to 
General Lafayette. They stopped at a tobacconist's 
shop on Pennsylvania Avenue to get some fine 
Maccaboy, when the general took occasion to re- 
mark that snuff inj ured some voices, and he continued 
in the piping voice, which it had left him, — " but it 
has never affected mine in the least.'' Clay in tell- 
ing this story used to imitate the thin nasal tones 
in which these words were said with the most hu- 
morous effect. 

By sheer personal grace and charm he could do 
successfully what others might not safely attempt. 
In the United States Supreme Court, while arguing 
a case at some length, he paused in the midst of his 
speech and stepping up airily to one of the justices, 
who was holding a snuff-box, took a pinch with the 
remark, "I see your honor sticks to the Scotch." 
Justice Story afterward said of this incident: "I 
have been on this bench thirty -four years and I do 
not believe there is a man in this country who could 
have done that but Henry Clay." 

When he could speak patiently of Jackson at all, 
it was a real pleasure to hear him relate this story 
illustrative of the state of culture existing in " Old 
Hickory's " household. One morning Mrs. Jackson 
arose with a cold. When she was asked how she 
had come by it, she said, it was because " during the 
night Gineral Jackson kept kicking the kivers off. " 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 425 

On one occasion, it is related, that Mr. Clay was 
brought face to face with Francis P. Blair, after the 
latter had gone over to Jackson. Blair was one of 
the publishers of the Frankfort Argus, which had 
joined in the cry of " bargain and corruption. " 
Clay had ridden over to the state capital on legal 
business, and on alighting from his horse at the 
tavern door, confronted Blair, who rather awk- 
wardly tried to escape the meeting. 

" How do you do, Mr. Blair? " said the " Great 
Commoner " as he extended his hand. 

" Pretty well, I thank you, sir," Blair responded 
with some embarrassment. " How did you find the 
roads from Lexington here % " 

" The roads are very bad, Mr. Blair," Clay re- 
turned in his most gracious way, "very bad, and I 
wish, sir, that you would mend your ways." 1 

In some of Captain Marryat's wanderings in this 
country he came to Lexington. As he brought a 
letter of introduction to Mr. Clay, he was asked to 
dine at " Ashland." His manners were in marked 
contrast to those of the other guests, who had been 
invited to meet him. During the dinner Mr. Clay 
hospitably urged Captain Marry at to have another 
glass of wine which he rudely declined, setting down 
his glass with such violence that it was shivered and 
saying in loud tones, u No more wine ; I have had 
enough." 

Thereupon Mr. Clay turned to another guest, and 
with great courtesy, said: " Lewis, you will try 
this wine, will you not? You have not had too 
much." 

1 Ben Perley Poore, Reminiscences, p. 104. 



426 HENRY CLAY 

Mr. Clay's readiness in retort is again shown in 
the case of a passage in the House of Representa- 
tives with General Smyth of Virginia, who had at- 
tained an unenviable notoriety for long and prosy 
speeches. In the midst of a tedious discourse he 
said to Clay : 

" You speak for the present generation ; I speak 
for posterity." 

" Yes," replied Mr. Clay, "and you seem re- 
solved to continue speaking until your audience 
arrives. ' • 

" You do not remember my name?" a lady said 
one time upon meeting Henry Clay. 

"No," was the prompt and gallant response, 
"for when we last met long ago I was sure your 
beauty and accomplishments would very soon com- 
pel you to change it." 

The faith which Clay's friends reposed in him is 
illustrated in a story he used sometimes to relate. 
There was a man in Kentucky who was everywhere 
known as " Old Sandusky." He and his neighbors 
closely followed Clay's course while he was ne- 
gotiating the Treaty of Ghent. In the newspaper 
reports of the proceedings were seen now and again 
the words sine qua non. JSTo one knew what they 
meant. ' l Old Sandusky ' ' was somewhat perplexed. 
" Sine qua non," he said slowly repeating the Latin. 
"Why, sine qua non is three islands in Passama- 
quoddy Bay, and Harry Clay is the last man to give 
them up." 

Measured by his experience as a presidential can- 
didate, Clay's life may be said to have been unsuc- 
cessful. He, of course, had an ambition to attain to 



PEKSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 427 

the highest office in the land, bnt unlike Webster's 
which was " a little too much mixed with self-love, " 
as Governor Letcher one time wrote to Mr. Critten- 
den, he was c ' always ready to surrender it for the 
possible hope of promoting his country's good." 
Clay was ' ' more elevated, more disinterested, more 
patriotic " than the great New England leader. 

As a presidential candidate Clay, however, 
seemed to be pursued by the genius of misfortune. 
That he would have been very glad to have been 
the choice of the country as early as in 1825, when 
he gave his influence to John Quincy Adams, is un- 
deniable. He made no movement whatever to op- 
pose Mr. Adams as a candidate for the second term, 
in 1828, a kind of disloyalty of which he could not 
have been guilty. He did not think of himself as a 
candidate at this time. 

In 1832 he opposed Andrew Jackson on questions 
of principle sincerely felt, but it was impossible to win 
against the military prestige of his opponent. His 
own Whig party was new and unfit for the contest 
in a time of remarkable ferment and excitement. 

In 1836 the country was still completely in Jack- 
son's hands and Van Buren was elected over several 
Whigs, not formally nominated for the position. 

In 1840 when Clay should have been nominated 
except for the treachery of some leaders in the con- 
vention, who were determined to bring out Harri- 
son, the Whigs were successful by overwhelming 
majorities. 

In 1844 when he was nominated, the situation was 
rendered much less favorable by the schism in the 
party created by Tyler, and he was defeated only by 



428 HENRY CLAY 

a few thousand votes in New York, which were per- 
haps fraudulently cast. 

In 1848 he was persuaded to allow the use of his 
name only by the representations of a number of the 
leaders in Ohio. They insisted upon his candidacy ; 
he yielded for the sake of the principles involved in 
the contest, and to prevent the nomination of a 
military leader, incompetent in civil affairs ; he was 
deserted by those who had importuned him and 
Taylor was nominated and elected. 

Thus, not taking account of the election of 1824, 
Clay was twice defeated in the convention in years 
when he, in all likelihood, would have been elected, 
and twice defeated by the people when his name 
was regularly brought before them as a presidential 
candidate and when, it would appear, a Whig 
could not have been chosen in any case. Such a 
record of events can fairly be ascribed only to re- 
markable misfortune. It led naturally to feelings 
of humiliation and disappointment. The mortifica- 
tion, however, was always greater to his friends 
than to Clay himself and it was by them, after all, 
rather than by any ambition of his own, that he 
was urged into the campaigns. 

He always believed and said that it was no man's 
light to decline public service unless for excellent 
reasons, and this became a rule of his life. More- 
over, no one can well refuse a post which has not 
been offered to him, and this fact deterred him from 
public statements at times when his diligent enemies 
accused him of seeking the presidency. His devotion 
to the principles of his party, which he had created 
in most instances, led him to wish to make them 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 429 

prevail. From the constantly evinced attachment of 
his friends, no man had more reason to believe that 
he was a suitable instrument to represent these prin- 
ciples before the country, and thus he was put in the 
false light of seeming to be an aspirant for the 
high office. If he had held it, it is not likely that 
his reputation would have been greatly the gainer 
by the experience, however much he should have 
ornamented the position. His name might have 
been made more familiar to the school-children as 
they scan and recite the list of our Presidents. But 
it is as a parliamentary leader and debater that he 
shone. For this service did nature especially en- 
dow him with his splendid gifts, and in this role did 
he play his distinguished part in the history of the 
republic. 

If he could have forwarded his plans for the 
colonization of the negroes, the gain would have 
been great. ' * Henry Clay, a Kentucky slaveholder, 
would have saved us," wrote Andrew D. White. 
"Infinitely better than the violent solution pro- 
posed to us was his large statesmanlike plan of 
purchasing the slave children as they were born 
and setting them free. Without bloodshed and at 
cost of the merest nothing as compared to the cost 
of the Civil War, he would thus have solved the 
problem ; but it was not so to be. The guilt of the 
nation was not to be so cheaply atoned for. Fa- 
natics North and South opposed him." ■ 

1 Autobiography, Vol. I, p. 55. 



s 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Adams, John Quincy. Memoirs of. Edited by Charles Francis 
Adams, 1876. 

Adams, Henry. John Randolph, 1883. 

Brooks, Erastus. Address of, entitled, " Leading Incidents in 
the Life of Henry Clay," 1886. 

Baldwin, J. G. Party Leaders, 1855. 

Blaine, James G. Twenty Years of Congress, 1861-1881. (2 
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Benton, Thomas H. Thirty Years' View. (2 volumes.) 1854- 
1856. 

Barnes, T. W. Memoir of Thurlow Weed, 1884. 

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Clay Code, or Text-Book of Eloquence. Edited by G. Van- 
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Comegys, Joseph P. Memoir of John M. Clayton, 1882. 

Congressional Debates for the period through which Henry 
Clay's public activities extended. 

Coleman, Mrs. C. The Life of J. J. Crittenden, 187 1. 

Colton, Calvin. The Life, Correspondence and Speeches of 
Henry Clay. (6 volumes.) 1864. 

Calhoun, John C. The Works of. Edited by Richard K. 
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Clay, Henry. The Statesman and the Patriot. Containing 
numerous anecdotes. Anonymous, 1853. 

Dixon, Mrs. Archirald. The Missouri Compromise and its 
Repeal, 1899. Second edition, 1903. 

Gallatin, Albert. The Writings of. Edited by Henry Adams, 
1879. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 431 

Garland, H. A. The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke, i860. 

Garrison, William Lloyd. The Story of his Life. Told by 
his children, 1889. 

Greeley, Horace. Recollections of a Busy Life, 1868. 

Gay, Sydney Howard. James Madison, 1888. 

Gilman, Daniel C. James Monroe, in his relations to the public 
service during half a century, 1776 to 1826, 1883. 

Hamilton, S. M. The Writings of James Monroe, 1898 et seq. 

Hammond, Jabez D. Life and Times of Silas Wright, late Gov- 
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Homes of American Statesmen. With Anecdotal, Personal 
and Descriptive Sketches. By various writers, 1854. 

Hosmer, James K. A Short History of the Mississippi Valley, 1901. 

Hunt, Gaillard. The First Forty Years of Washington Society. 
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Life of James Madison, 1902. 

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Julian, George W. The Life of Joshua R. Giddings, 1892. 

Jameson, J. Franklin. Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, 
1900. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot. Daniel Webster, 1883. 

Maury, Sarah Mytton. The Statesmen of America in 1846, 
1847. 

Martineau, Harriet. Society in America. Third edition, 1837. 

McCall, Samuel W. Thaddeus Stevens. American Statesmen 
Series, 1899. 

Monument to the Memory of Henry Clay. Anonymous, 1857. 

McLaughlin, Andrew C. Lewis Cass, 1891. 

Moore, John Bassett. The works of James Buchanan, 1908 
et seq. 

Marshall, H. The History of Kentucky. Exhibiting an ac- 
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state of the country. (2 volumes.) 1824. 



432 BIBLIOGEAPHY 

McMaster, John Bach. A History of the People of the United 
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1883 et seq. 

Meigs, William M. The Life of Thomas Hart Benton, 1904. 

Mallory, Daniel. The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry 
Clay. (2 volumes.) 1844. 

Niles' Weekly Register. 

Obituary Addresses on the occasion of the death of the Hon. 
Henry Clay in the legislature of Kentucky, February 8, 
1854. 

' Addresses on the occasion of the death of Henry Clay, 

Washington, 1852. 

Obsequies of Henry Clay. Printed by the Common Council of 
New York, 1852. 

Prentiss, S. S. A Memoir of. Edited by his brother. (2 vol- 
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Prentice, George D. Biography of Henry Clay, 1831. 

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the National Metropolis. (2 volumes.) 1886. 

Quincy, Edmund. Life of Josiah Quincy, 1867. 

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Schurz, Carl. Life of Henry Clay. (2 volumes.) 1887. 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 433 

SHALER, N. S. Kentucky : a Pioneer Commonwealth, 1885. 

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INDEX 



Abolitionists, at first in favor 
of colonization, 106 ; their 
petitions in Congress, 291- 
292 ; their tracts in the mails, 
292 ; insistent demands of, 
295 ; Clay denounces, 295- 
297 ; Clay foresees danger 
in course of, 299 ; asks 
them to cease agitation, 
300 ; make inquiries of Clay 
through Friend Mendenhall, 
303-305 ; Clay's references 
to, in "Alabama Letters," 3 15- 
317 ; proud of their defeat of 
Clay, 317-318 ; again de- 
nounces, 360 ; growing 
strength of, 370. 

Adair, John, Clay elected to 
seat of, 40. 

Adams, John, 35, 149, 166. 

Adams, John Quincy, men- 
tioned, 25 ; Minister to Rus- 
sia, 74 ; peace commissioner, 
74-77 ; his opinion of Clay, 
75 _ 77 > Secretary of State, 
82 ; annoyed at Clay, 91 ; 
attitude of toward South 
Americans, 96 ; buys Flor- 
ida, 101 ; denounces a trick 
by Clay, 1 14 ; praises Clay 
for Missouri Compromise, 
1 24 ; in line for presidency, 
135 ; votes cast for, 137 ; 
expresses views of Clay in 
diary, 1 39- 140 ; Clay de- 
cides to support, 141 ; bar- 
gain story started about, 142 ; 
elected President, 143; 
makes Clay Secretary of 
State, 143 ; vain explana- 
tions of, 143-144 ; praises 
Clay as Speaker, 145 ; comes 



to know Clay's worth, 148- 
150 ; defends himself, 150 ; 
plans of for the nation, 15 1- 
152; opinion of Randolph, 
153; " Blifil and Black 
George," 153-154; tells of 
Clay's illness, 159-160 ; un- 
willing for Clay to resign, 
160 ; on Amos Kendall, 163 
his views of Jackson, 165 
defeated by Jackson, 166 
his " sun " sets, 168 ; fare- 
well to Clay, 1 68 ; offers 
Clay seat on Supreme Bench, 
169; in House, 192; criti- 
cizes Clay, 1 92- 1 93 ; Clay- 
tells of his vote for, 252 ; 
Tyler approves Clay's vote 
for, 276 ; contest of for right 
of petition, 306; disappointed 
by Clay's defeat, 321 ; Clay 
visits, 333; death of, 334; 
praises Clay as orator, 390 ; 
criticizes his reading, 391. 

Alabama, admitted to Union, 
no. 

"Alabama Letters," Clay 
writes, 315-317 ; harm done 
ky> 318 ; Clay's opinion of 
slavery expressed in, 325. 

Alien and Sedition Laws, 
passed, 35 ; Clay opposes, 

35-3 6 - 
Allen, John, 42-43- 
Ambrister, shot by Jackson, 97, 

100. 
American Colonization Society, 

Clay speaks to, in 1827, 106; 

later speech before, 290-291 ; 

continued interest in, 325 ; 

again addresses, 332-333. 
" American system," Clay calls 



INDEX 



435 



protective tariff the, 132; 
he defends, 179-182, 191- 
197; father ol, 186; in 
danger, 207 ; modified and 
saved, 214. 

Anderson, Richard C. f 152. 

Anti-Masons, oppose Jackson, 
203 ; vote polled by, in 1832, 
204. 

Arbuthnot, shot by Jackson, 97, 
100. 

Arkansas, 1 10. 

Ashburton Treaty, 281. 

" Ashland," torn down, 7 ; pur- 
chased by state, 7 ; Clay ac- 
quires, 28 ; Harriet Marti- 
neau at, 28-29 ; Clay returns 
to, 125; Clay busy at, 172; 
in retreat at, 177, 217 ; Gen- 
eral Harrison visits, 274 ; 
mortgage on, lifted, 323 ; 
Clay's wish again to see, 

367- 
Aurora, 222. 

Bancroft, George, his tribute 
to Clay, 386. 

Bank of the United States, asks 
to be rechartered, 57 ; Clay 
opposes, 58 ; Clay favors, 85- 
86 ; Clay counsel for, 125 ; 
bill to recharter, 199 ; bill 
vetoed by Jackson, 200 ; issue 
in campaign of 1832, 204; 
Jackson removes deposits 
from, 221-222; Jackson cen- 
sured for policy in regard to, 
223-227 ; resolution to re- 
store deposits to, 227 ; Clay 
still favors, 261 ; Tyler's veto 
of bill to recharter, 278 ; his 
second veto, 280. 

Barbour, James, 190. 

Bargain and corruption story, 
origin of, 142 ; long term of 
service of, 144 ; Randolph 
brings up, 1 54- 1 55 ; revival 
of, 15S, 174 ; Calhoun re- 



peats, 259 ; Jackson's last 
word on, 315. 

Barnwell, R. \V., defends 
Rhett, 361. 

Bayard, James A., appointed 
peace commissioner, 74. 

Bell, John, resolutions of, 353. 

Benton, Thomas H., mentioned, 
80 ; supports Clay for Presi- 
dent, 136; his account of 
Clay-Randolph duel, 155 - 
157 ; supports Jackson on 
bank issue, 200 ; leads ex- 
pungers, 237-242 ; describes 
Clay's farewell to the Senate, 
287 ; in Senate in 1850, 
345 ; on the " bleeding 
wounds," 356 ; a tilt with 
Clay, 359. 

Berkley, E. F., Rev., speaks at 
funeral, 383 ; baptizes Clay, 

413- 
Berlin Decree, 48. 

Bernadotte, 365. 

Berrien, John M., 345. 

Bibb, William W., 59. 

Biddle, Nicholas, 230. 

Birney, James G., 313, 317. 

"Black Tariff," 181, 192. 

Blair, Francis P., 141, 159,425. 

Blennerhassett, Mrs., 45. 

" Blifil and Black George," 

Randolph's speech on, 153- 

!55- 
Bolivar, General, 95. 

Bolleman, Doctor, 41. 

Brazil, 95. 

Breckinridge, John, 24. 

Breckinridge, John C, 377. 

British Orders in Council, 48, 71. 

Brooke, Attorney-General, 19. 

Brooke, Francis, Clay's letters 
to, on repugnance to office, 
147, 178-179; on masonry 
in politics, 203 ; on his own 
defeat, 204 ; on nullification, 
208; on "Ashland," 217- 
218; on the state of affairs, 



436 



INDEX 



218-219; on trip to New 
York, 220, 243 ; on cam- 
paign of 1840, 262 ; on Ty- 
ler, 278 ; on elections of 
1 84 1, 282; on retirement 
from Senate, 282. 

Brown, James, 24. 

Brown, William, 121. 

Buchanan, James, Clay's opin- 
ion of, 373 ; Clay annoys, 
421-423. 

Burke, Edmund, 388. 

Burr, Aaron, 38-45. 

Burton, Lewis W., 7. 

Butler, A. P., senator of South 
Carolina, 345. 

Butler, Doctor, chaplain of 
Senate, 380. 

Calhoun, John C, young 
"war hawk," 60, 67, 125; 
inconsistencies of, 86 ; favors 
tariff, 86 ; changes views 
concerning tariff, 135 ; can- 
didate for President, 136; 
construes constitution strictly, 
152; defeats tariff bill, 180; 
his "Exposition of 1828," 
181 ; prodded by Clay, 194, 
197 ; votes against Van Bu- 
ren, 198-199; his enmity for 
Jackson, 199; Jackson threat- 
ens to hang, 203 ; Jackson 
attacks theories of, 205-206 ; 
takes Hayne's place in Sen- 
ate, 206 ; argues his case in 
Senate, 208 ; confers with 
Clay, 209 ; speaks on com- 
promise, 211— 212; proud of 
result, 216 ; attacks Jackson 
for removing deposits, 222 ; 
opposes expunging, 239 ; 
Clay assails, 253-260; Clay 
calls metaphysical, 255 ; his 
public land scheme, 258 ; re- 
peats bargain story, 259 ; his 
theory as to hard times, 283 ; 
shakes Clay's hand, 286 ; on 



incendiary matter in mails, 
292 ; resolutions on slavery, 
293-294 ; irreconcilable, 294 ; 
commends speech of Clay 
on slavery, 297-298 ; Tyler's 
Secretary of State, 308 ; gains 
full control, 311 ; returned to 
Senate, 345 ; dying words of, 
355 ; place taken by Barn- 
well, 361 ; opinion of Clay's 
oratory, 391. 

California, constitution for, 343 ; 
Clay favors admission of, as 
free state, 346, 349 ; in 
Omnibus Bill, 356 ; Clay op- 
poses Taylor's policy regard- 
ing, 358 ; admitted to Union, 
366. 

Campbell, Representative, of 
Ohio, 119. 

Campbell, John B., 50. 

Canada, Clay's proposal to in- 
vade, 66. 

Carey, Henry C, 135. 

Carey, Mathew, 133, 135. 

Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 
191. 

Cass, General Lewis, Clay re- 
fuses to support, 339 ; in Sen- 
ate, 345 ; Clay prefers, to 
Buchanan, 373 ; his eulogy 
of Clay, 380. 

Censure of Jackson by Senate, 
223-227 ; expunged, 237- 
242. 

Chase, S. P., 149, 345, 356, 

37°- 

Cherokees in Georgia, Clay de- 
fends, 231-232. 

Cheves, Langdon, 60. 

Clark, Representative, of New 
York, 120. 

Clay, Ann — see Mrs. Erwin. 

Clay, George, 17. 

Clay, Henry, birth of, 15 ; an- 
cestors of, 15-17 ; " Mill Boy 
of the Slashes," 18; clerk in 
a store, 18; chancery clerk, 






INDEX 



437 



18-19; favored by Chancel- 
lor Wythe, 19 ; admitted to 
bar, 20 ; goes to Kentucky, 
20-21 ; warmly received, 22- 
23 ; delivers oration, 22 ; 
land grant litigation, 25 ; J. 
O. Harrison's recollections 
of, 26-27 J marries Lucretia 
Hart, 28 ; purchases " Ash- 
land," 28-29 ; leaves wife on 
estate, 30; children, 31-33; 
grief at death of Mrs. Erwm, 
3 1 ; writes anti-slavery letters, 
34-35 ; opposes Alien and 
Sedition Laws, 35-36; elected 
to legislature, 36-37 ; a Jef- 
fersonian, 39 ; defends Burr, 
38-41 ; discovers villainy of 
Burr, 41-45 ; takes seat in 
Senate, 45 ; again in legisla- 
ture, 46 ; opposes anti-British 
movement, 47 ; approves em- 
bargo, 47-48; enrages Mar- 
shall, 49 ; challenged and 
fights, 50 ; again in Senate, 
51; advocates tariff, 51-52; 
defends Madison on Florida 
question, 56-57 ; opposes re- 
charter of bank, 57-58 ; end 
of term in Senate, 59 ; 
Speaker of House, 59 ; leads 
" war hawks," 60 ; advocates 
greater army and navy, 60- 
61 ; wages war, 63-65 ; re- 
elected Speaker, 65 ; attacked 
by Quincy, 66-67 5 General 
Harrison writes to, 68-70 ; 
states issues of war, 71-73; 
appointed to peace commis- 
sion, 75 ; tilts with Adams, 
75-77 J g° es to London, 78 ; 
home again, 78-80 ; eyes on 
presidency, 81-82; offered 
cabinet positions, 82 ; offered 
English mission, 82 ; again 
made Speaker, 83 ; con- 
structive policies of, 83-84 ; 
favors bank, 85-86; advo- 



cates internal improvements, 
87 ; leaves Jeffersonians, 88- 
yo ; opposes Monroe, 90-91 ; 
befriends South Americans, 
92-96 ; " Great Commoner," 
95-9 ; assails Jackson's 
course in Florida, 97-101 ; 
crowds come to hear, 98- 
100; thinks Texas part of 
Louisiana Purchase, 102- 
103 ; friend of Greece, 103- 
104; "Great Pacificator," 
105 ; his dislike of slavery, 
106 ; his part in Missouri 
Compromise, 107- 124; finan- 
cial misfortunes of, 115, 125 ; 
counsel for Bank of United 
States, 125 ; illness of, 126 ; 
returns to Speaker's chair, 
126; presidential candidate, 
127 ; internal improvements 
again, 127-130 ; tilt with 
Randolph, 1 30-13 1 ; his 
"American system," 132; 
demands higher tariff, 131- 
135 ; nominated for Presi- 
dent, 136; not enough votes, 
137; welcomes Lafayette, 
I 37~ 1 3$'> supports Adams, 
1 38- 14 1 ; bargain story 
started, 141-143 ; leaps at 
Kremer, 142-143 ; Secretary 
of State, 143 ; vain retorts, 
143-144, 158; retires from 
speakership, 145 ; praised as 
Speaker, 145-146; unhappy 
years, 147 ; comes to value 
Adams, 148 ; his loyalty to 
Adams, 149 ; praised by 
Adams, 150 ; plans Pan- 
American Congress, 150- 
153 ; attacked by Randolph, 
153—1 55 ; his duel with 
Randolph, 156- 157 ; foreign 
policy of, 157-158; ill health 
of, 159-161 ; personal side 
of, 161-163; loses Kentucky, 
163; Adams speaks h of, 165; 



438 



INDEX 



beloved in Washington, 167 ; 
leaves Washington, 168 ; of- 
fered place on Supreme 
Bench, 169; condemns mili- 
tary heroes, 169-170 ; his 
journey home, 170-17 1 ; 
speaks of roads, 171; farm- 
ing at "Ashland," 172; 
leader of new party, 173 ; 
denounces spoils system, 174- 
176; goes South, 177-178; 
speaks in Ohio, 179 ; returns 
to tariff, 179-182; denounces 
nullification, 182-185 ; for 
President in 1832, 186, 187 ; 
great orator, 186 ; visits New 
Orleans, 187 ; again in Sen- 
ate, 189; courage of, 189; 
nominated for President, 189- 
192; defends tariff in Senate, 
192-197 ; passage with Cal- 
houn, 194-195 ; leads fight 
against Van Buren, 198-199; 
opposes Jackson in bank bill 
veto, 200 ; his land policy, 
201-202 ; on free-masonry, 
203 ; defeated by Jackson, 
203-204 ; proposes compro- 
mise tariff, 208 ; confers with 
Calhoun, 209 ; with manufac- 
turers, 209 ; his plan of ac- 
commodation, 209-212; fear 
of a war with Jackson in com- 
mand, 212-213; disclaims 
ambition, 213-214; congratu- 
lated by Madison, 214-215 ; 
his land bill, 218; despairs, 
218-219; trip to East, 220 ; 
attacks Jackson for removing 
deposits, 221-227 ; names 
Whig party, 229 ; prevents 
rupture with France, 230 ; 
rival leaders in 1836, 234; 
despondency of, 235-237, 
243 ; resists expungers, 237- 
242 ; support of surplus dis- 
tribution scheme, 244-245 ; 
again recommends bank, 248 ; 



opposes sub-treasury system, 
248-251 ; on Jackson's van- 
ity, 251-253; arraigns Cal- 
houn, 253-260 ; Calhoun's 
opinion of, 253, 257 ; re- 
minds Calhoun of support of 
Adams, 259 ; assailed by 
Calhoun, 259-260 ; tour of 
Eastern states, 262 ; Weed's 
plan to defeat, 263-267 ; 
meets Weed at Saratoga, 
264 ; chagrin of friends, 268 ; 
endorses ticket, 268-269 ; 
speech at Nashville, 269- 
271 ; joy of victory, 272- 
273 ; speaks again on land 
bill, 273-274 ; asked to be 
Secretary of State, 274; set 
aside by Harrison, 274-275 ; 
Tyler's devotion to, 276-277 ; 
takes command, 277-278 ; 
Tyler vetoes his bank bill, 
278-279 ; " corporal's guard," 
279-280 ; reads Tyler out of 
party, 280-281 ; Tyler calls, 
a " doomed man," 281 ; in- 
tention to retire, 282 ; says 
tariff of 1833 is too low, 283 ; 
his farewell address, 284- 
287 ; shakes hands with Cal- 
houn, 286; his slaves, 288; 
favors colonization, 289, 290, 
291 ; asked to aid Garrison, 
289 ; opposes abridgment of 
right of petition, 292 ; resolu- 
tions on slavery, 293-294 ; 
addresses the Abolitionists, 
295-297 ; Calhoun commends 
speech of, 298 ; " rather be 
right than President," 299 ; 
letter on abolition to Jacob 
Gibson, 299 ; for President 
in 1844, 301 ; triumphant re- 
turn to Kentucky, 302 ; " a 
flash in the pan," 303 ; meets 
Friend Mendenhall, 303- 
305 ; supports Giddings, 306 ; 
on Texas, 306-307 ; tour of 



INDEX 



439 



South, 309 ; writes Raleigh 
letter, 309 ; nominated for 
President, 310 ; picturesque 
campaign, 311-313; Jackson 
slanders, 315; writes "Ala- 
bama Letters," 315-317; de- 
feated by Polk, 318; his 
friends charge fraud, 319 ; 
sorrow of friends, 319-321 ; 
his own disappointment, 321- 
322 ; debts of, paid, 323-324 ; 
denounces Mexican War, 
326, 328-330; goes to New 
Orleans, 326; speaks for Ire- 
land, 326-327 ; son killed, 
327 ; at Cape May, 327 ; in- 
vited to many cities, 327- 
328; speaks to Colonization 
Society, 332-333 ; appears in 
Supreme Court, 333 ; at 
Adams's bedside, 333 ; in 
Philadelphia and New York, 
334; urged for President in 
1848, 334-335; his false 
friends, 336-337 ; gives up 
letter-writing, 335 ; on work 
of Philadelphia convention, 
337 ; refuses to support Tay- 
lor 337-338 ; withholds let- 
ter damaging to Taylor, 338 ; 
asked to lead third party, 
339 ; goes South again, 339 ; 
reelected to Senate, 339 ; 
plan for colonization in Ken- 
tucky, 340-341 ; slavery the 
one theme at Washington, 
343-344 ; whom he met 
there, 345 ; his compromise 
resolutions, 346-348; repri- 
mands Jefferson Davis, 349 ; 
growing feebleness of, 350 ; 
denounces secession, 351— 
353; addresses Foote, 353— 
354 ; what he thought of 
slavery in 1850, 354; at 
head of Compromise Com- 
mittee, 356-357 ; on "bleed- 
ing wounds," 358 ; tilt with 



Benton, 359 ; activity of, 359 ; 
denounces Abolitionists, 360 ; 
denounces Davis and Rhett, 
361 ; eloquent appeals for 
Union, 362-366 ; speeches 
applauded, 364 ; goes to New- 
port, 366; friendly with 
Webster, 369 ; his cough, 
371 ; goes to Cuba, 371 ; re- 
turns to Washington, 375 ; 
meets Kossuth, 375 ; con- 
tinued illness of, 376; death 
of » 37S-379; funeral in 
Washington, 379-381 ; prog- 
ress home, 381-382; inter- 
ment, 384 ; tomb of, 384- 
385 ; his devotion to the 
Union, 386; oratorical powers, 
3^7-39° '■> opposed to trick- 
ery* 39 I ~39 2 ; Mr. Harrison 
on, '392-398; his voice, 399- 
400; fascinations of, 401- 
403 ; friends of, 403-404 ; 
enemies of, 405 ; women ad- 
mired, 405-409; his slaves, 
411-412; religious views of, 
412-417 ; financial reverses 
of, 417-418; careful business 
methods, 418-419 ; anecdotes 
of, 420-426 ; as a presidential 
candidate, 427-429. 

Clay, Mrs. Henry, marriage of, 
28 ; character of, 28 ; her 
home, 29-30 ; manages farm, 
30; children of, 31-33 ; self- 
restraint of, 50-5 1 ; a relation 
of Benton, 136, 156; illness 
of, 161 ; Mrs. Smith's friend- 
ship for, 161-162; a beloved 
figure in Washington, 167— 
168; returns to "Ashland," 
172; jewels for, 321 ; solaces 
Clay in defeat, 321 ; Clay 
misses, 350; death of, 384; 
Mrs. Maury's visit to, 408. 

Clay, Henry, Jr., 7, 33, 327. 

Clay, James B., rebuilds " Ash- 
land," 7 ; Minister to Portu- 



440 



INDEX 



gal, 32; father writes to, 371, 

376. 

Clay, Rev. John, Henry Clay's 
father, 15, 16, 17, 18. 

Clay, Mrs. John, Henry Clay's 
mother, marriage of, 16; 
widow, 18 ; marries Henry 
Watkins, 18; removes to 
Kentucky, 20; death of, 21. 

Clay, John, Henry Clay's 
brother, 17, 20. 

Clay, John Morrison, Henry 
Clay's son, 33. 

Clay, Porter, Henry Clay's 
brother, 17, 20. 

Clay, Susan Hart — see Mrs. 
Duralde. 

Clay, Theodore Wythe, 32. 

Clay, Thomas Hart, son of 
Henry Clay, 32, 367 ; father 
telegraphs for, 377 ; returns 
with body, 379; financial re- 
verses of, 419. 

Clay, Mrs. Thomas H., Clay's 
daughter-in-law, 376, 413. 

Claye, John, 15-16. 

Clayton, John M., 208, 268, 
336. 

Clinton, DeWitt, 65. 

Cobb, Howell, 119. 

Coles, Colonel, 44. 

Colton, Calvin, 144-145, 158. 

Columbia}? Observer, Kremer's 
letter in, 142. 

Combs, General, Clay writes to, 
265-266, 342. 

Compromise of 1833, how it 
was arranged, 179-214, 253; 
Calhoun not grateful for, 
259 ; rates of too low, 283. 

Compromise of 1 850, how it 
was effected, 345-367 ; re- 
sults of, 368-369 ; people 
asked to support, 369-370. 

Corcoran and Riggs, 418. 

Corwin, Thomas, of Ohio, 345. 

Crawford, William H., candi- 
date for President, 136; par- 



alyzed, 138; defeated, 143; 
Clay writes to, 148. 

Crittenden, John J., his opinion 
of Clay, 81 ; removed by 
Jackson, 188; withdraws in 
favor of Clay, 188 ; told that 
Clay would vote for Adams, 
252 ; in Harrison's cabinet, 
284 ; takes Clay's place in 
Senate, 284; takes oath of 
office, 286 ; on Clay's fare- 
well speech, 286; opposes 
Clay's nomination, 331, 336 ; 
reunion with Clay, 336 ; 
eulogy of Clay, 378. 

Cuba, Clay goes to, 37. 

Cumberland Road, 87, 128, 
129, 371,404- 

Czar of Russia, interposes for 
peace, 74. 

Dallas, George M., Secretary 
of Treasury, 86 ; nominated 
for Vice-President, 311 ; de- 
ceives Pennsylvania, 314. 

Daviess, Joseph Hamilton, 25, 

38-39, 42. 

Davis, Jefferson, 345, 348, 349, 
361. 

Deacon, Peter, 17. 

Dearborn, General, 190, 424. 

Delaware and Chesapeake Ca- 
nal, 128. 

Denny, Richard, 18. 

Dickens, Charles, on Clay, 403. 

District of Columbia, slavery 
in, 292, 293, 294 ; Clay sup- 
ports slaveholding in, 295, 
347 ; favors abolition of slave- 
trade in, 347 ; law to abolish 
it in, proposed, 357 ; passed, 

367- 
" Doughfaces," 114. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 325. 

Dowling, John, 43-44. 

Duane, William J., 222. 

Duel, Clay's with H. Marshall, 

50; Clay's opinion of, 142- 



INDEX 



441 



143; Clay's with Randolph, 

I 5 6 ~ I 57r 

Dupuy, Aaron, 288, 396. 

Dupuy, Charles, 288, 289. 

Duralde, Martin, 31. 

Duralde, Mrs. Martin, Susan 
Hart Clay, marries, 31; death 
of, 160; family of, 177, 

Eaton, Senator, of Tennes- 
see, resolution of, 116, 118, 
119. 

Edgefield letter, of Calhoun, 
2 53, 255. 

England — -see Great Britain. 

Erie Canal, Clay favors, 87. 

Erwin, Mrs. James, Ann Clay, 
31, 236, 414. 

Etting, Solomon, correspond- 
ence with Clay, 415-416. 

Eustis, William, representative 
from Massachusetts, 118, 119. 

Evans, George, Senator from 
Maine, 400. 

Everett, Edward, 193. 

Federal party, end of, 36 ; 
attitude of, on Florida, 55, 
56; on War of 18 12, 60; 
nearly obliterated, 83; op- 
poses tariff of 1816, 86. 

Fillmore, Millard, sorry for 
Clay's defeat, 319; becomes 
President, 339, 360 ; appoints 
Webster Secretary of State, 
345 ; Clay friendly with, 369 ; 
on Shadrach case, 370; Clay 
favors him in 1852, 377. 

Fish, Hamilton, 420. 

Florida, Madison's proclama- 
tion, 53; boundaries of, 53; 
Jackson's invasion of, 97, 199 ; 
purchase of, 101-102; slavery 
in, 294-295. 

Floyd, John, 205. 

Foote, Henry S., 345, 348; 
Clay addresses, 353-354; 
renews his motion, 356. 



« Force Bill " against South 
Carolina, 207-208, 213, 214. 

Forney, John W., 423. 

Forrest, Edwin, 423. 

Fox, Charles James, 324, 402. 

France, issues decrees, 48-49 ; 
Louisiana purchased from, 
53-54; her injustices to 
United States, 60, 64, 65 ; 
ports of closed, 72; rupture 
with in 1 83 1, 230-231. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 35. 

Frelinghuysen, Theodore, for 
Vice-President, 310. 

Friends, through Mendenhall, 
question Clay, 303-305. 

Fugitive Slave Law, Clay ad- 
vocates a stronger, 347 ; plan 
for, 356; passed, 366; as- 
perities of, 370; Clay urges 
respect for, 374 ; Clay re- 
grets severities of, 375. 

Gallatin, Albert, 67 ; his 
opinion of Clay, 70 ; commis- 
sioner of peace, 74 ; pacifies, 
75» 77; declines place on 
Panama mission, 152; Clay 
attacks, 195. 

Garrard, Governor, 35. 

Garrison, W. L., in prison, 289. 

Ghent, Treaty of, 74-78. 

Gibson, Jacob, Clay writes to, 
299. 

Giddings, J. R., resigns seat, 
306; questions Clay, 316- 

3 ! 7- 
Glascock, General, 402. 

Gottenburg, suggested place of 
meeting, 74. 

Gratz, Benjamin, 158, 416. 

Great Britain, embargoes 
against, 47-49 ; Florida ceded 
to, 53; wrongs of, suffered, 
60-62 ; war declared on, 64 ; 
impresses seamen, 65, 7 1— 73 ; 
American rage against, 66- 
67 ; destroys American ship- 



142 



INDEX 



P in g» 7* > does not desire 
mediation, 74 ; willing to 
discuss terms, 74 ; her de- 
mands, 76-77 ; peace with, 
concluded, 78. 

Great Lakes, right to keep war 
vessels on, 76. 

Greeks, Clay friend of, 103-104. 

Greeley, Horace, meets Clay, 
375 » opinion of, 402-403. 

Grundy, Felix, opposes Clay, 
37-38 ; " war-hawk," 60 ; 
Clay on, at Nashville, 270- 
271. 

Male, John P., 345, 370, 3S0. 

Hall, Doctor, 419. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 39, 42, 

57, 86, 151. 
Hamilton, General James, 157. 
Hamlin, Hannibal, 345. 
Harlan, James, Clay writes to, 

346, 35 6 > 37 2 - 
Harrison, James O., manuscript 

diary of, 5 ; describes Clay, 
26-27, 389-390, 392-398; de- 
nies stories of Clay's intemper- 
ance, 412; on business meth- 
ods of Clay, 418-419. 

Harrison, William Henry, his 
letters to Clay during \Var of 
1812, 68-70; for President 
in 1836, 235; in 1 840, 262; 
his friends in New York, 
265 ; strength of, in conven- 
tion, 267 ; Clay endorses, 
269 ; humble beginnings of, 
emphasized, 269 ; death of, 
276; canonized, 31 1 ; Clay's 
attitude toward, in 1840, 337. 

Hart, Joel T., makes statue of 
Clay, 320. 

Hart, Lucretia — see Mrs. Henry 
Clay. 

Hart, Colonel Thomas, settle 
in Lexington, 27 ; Clay writes 
to, 41, 45-46 ; religion of, 

413- 



Hartford Convention, 60. 

Hayne, R. Y., his debates with 
Webster, 184 ; interrupts 
Clay, 195, 197 ; retires from 
Senate, 206. 

Hemp, Clay advocates tariff on 

5 1 - 

Henderson Company, 27. " 

Henry, Patrick, Clay hears, 
19 ; mentioned, 24 ; his dis- 
like of slavery, 160; speeches 
of, 389. 

Horsey, Outerbridge, 55-56. 

Houston vs. Bank of New Or- 
leans, 333. 

Houston, Sam, 345. 

Hudson, Elizabeth — see Mrs. 
John Clay. 

Hudson, George, 16. 

Hudson, Mary, 16. 

Humphreysville, 52. 

Hungary, sympathy for, 375. 

Hunter, Robert M., 345, 380. 

Illinois, admitted to Union, 

no. 
Impressment of seamen, 65, 71- 

73- 
Independent treasury system, 

recommended by Van Buren, 

247 ; opposed by Clay, 250. 

Indians, Clay defends, 99-101, 
231-232. 

Internal Improvements, Clay 
on, 45, 51, 84, 87 ; he de- 
fends constitutionality of, 88- 
90, 1 27-13 1 ; Adams favors, 

Ireland, Clay speaks for, 326 ; 
service remembered, 326, 

334- 

Jackson, Andrew, victory at 
New Orleans, 78 ; enters 
politics, 83 ; sweeps away 
bank, 86; lawless behavior 
in Florida, 96-9S ; Clay at- 
tacks, 96-101 ; awakens mil- 



INDEX 



443 



itary enthusiasm, 125 ; candi- 
date for President, 136 ; 
strong in West and South, 
136; tries to win Clay's 
favor, 138; Clay opposes, 
139; resentment of, 141 ; 
starts bargain story, 14 1- 
143 ; defeated by Adams, 
*43 > rages on his way home, 
144 ; rude character of his 
friends, 149 ; who increase in 
numbers, 162 ; sweeps Ken- 
tucky, 163 ; Clay condemns, 
163- 165 ; Jefferson's view of, 
165 ; Adams's view of, 165 ; 
elected over Adams, 166; 
implacable hate for Clay, 
173-174 ; sets Clay out of of- 
fice, 174; introduces spoils 
system, 1 74- 177 ; views of 
tariff, 181 ; Clay leader 
against, 183, 189-19 1 ; his 
enmity for Calhoun, 199 ; re- 
wards Van Buren, 199 ; ve- 
toes bank bill, 199-200 ; his 
land policy, 201 ; favored in 
campaign of 1832, 203-204; 
his threat to hang Calhoun, 
203 ; great victory won by, 
204 ; his proclamation 
against South Carolina, 205- 
208 ; Clay's fear of a war led 
by, 212-213; appoints his 
successor, 218-219; vetoes 
Clay's land bill, 218-221 ; 
removes deposits, 221-222 ; 
Clay's attack on, for this, 
223-227 ; censure of, 223- 
227 ; Senate rejects his nom- 
inations, 228 ; nearly pro- 
duces rupture with France, 
229-231 ; spoils system of, 
233 ; end of his reign, 237 ; 
censure expunged, 237-242 ; 
his specie circular, 246; re 
fuses to rescind it, 247 ; ar- 
raigned by Clay for sub- 
treasury system, 250-251 ; 



Clay denounces vanity of, 
251-253 ; Clay likens to Na- 
poleon, 251; Clay near his 
home in 1840, 270; favors 
Texas, 310; revives bargain 
story, 315. 

Jackson, Mrs. Andrew, 166, 
424. 

Jackson, Doctor Francis, 418. 

Jefferson, Thomas, Kentucky 
devoted to, 39; and Burr, 
41, 44 ; embargo of, 47, 49 ; 
his efforts to obtain justice 
from England, 59 ; men- 
tioned, 67, 88, 166 ; his dis- 
like of slavery, 106 ; fears 
for Union at time of Missouri 
Compromise, 117; his view 
of Jackson, 165. 

Jesup, General, 156. 

Jews, Clay's attitude toward, 
415-416. 

Johnson, Reverdy, 268. 

Johnson, Richard M., 189. 

Johnston, J. S., Clay writes to, 

x 37. '38, 139. 170, 173. iS?- 
Jones, George W., 380. 

Kendall, Amos, 163. 

Kent, Chancellor, 243. 

Kentucky, early condition of, 
20 ; convention to revise 
constitution of, 34; circuit 
court system in, 46 ; Clay's 
plan of colonization for, 340- 

341. 

Kentucky Colonization Society, 

Clay speaks to, 291. 
King, William R., 345. 
Kossuth, Louis, meets Clay, 

375- 
Kremer, George, his attack on 

Clay, 141-144, 156. 

Lafayette, Clay welcomes, 
137-138 ; dinner to, 424. 

Land sales, regulation of, 201- 
202 ; Clay's plan for vetoed 



444 



INDEX 



by Jackson, 218, 221, 233- 
234 ; new bill regarding, de- 
feated, 233-234 ; surplus 
from, distributed, 244-247 ; 
Calhoun's plan concerning, 
258 ; Clay again advocates 
his plan for, 272-273, 280 ; 
his bill defeated, 306. 

La Plata, Republic of, 94. 

Latin America — see Spanish 
America. 

Lawrence, Abbott, 217. 

Leigh, B. Watkins, 268. 

Letcher, Governor, 314, 427. 

Lexington, state of when Clay 
arrived in, 22 ; early bar in, 

2 3- 2 5- 
Lexington Emigration Society, 

28. 
Lexington Insurance Company, 

37- 
Liberia, Clay favors sending 

negroes to, 289, 332, 340, 

411. 

Liberty party in campaign of 

1844, 3 l 3> 3 l 1- 

Lincoln, Abraham, favors colo- 
nization, 106 ; Chase's rela- 
tions with, 149 ; fame of, 
369 ; spirit of Clay seen in, 
386 ; as an orator, 388-389. 

Lind, Jenny, Clay hears, 369. 

Livingston, Peter R., 190. 

Louis Napoleon, 375. 

Louisiana, purchase of, 53, 54; 
prohibition of slaveholding 
in north of territory of, 112, 
121 ; was Texas a part of, 

307- 
Lowndes, William, 60, 1 19, 183. 

Lundy, Benjamin, 106. 

Madison, James, 24 ; Florida 
proclamation, 53-54; Feder- 
alists attack his policy, 55 ; 
Clay defends, 55-57 ; his 
dealings with England, 59 ; 
messages of, 62, 63 ; recom- 



mends embargo, 63 ; nomi- 
nated for reelection, 64 ; re- 
elected, 65 ; price of second 
term, 67 ; wishes to make a 
general of Clay, 70 ; urged to 
greater activity, 72 ; ready 
for peace, 74 ; offers Clay 
cabinet posts, 82; vetoes in- 
ternal improvement bill, 87- 
88 ; his dislike of slavery, 
106 ; compliments Clay, 214- 
215 ; death of, 236. 

Maine, admission to Union of, 
1 10- 1 1 2, 114. 

Mammy Lottie, 288. 

Mangum, W. P., 235, 30 1, 

345- 
" Mansfield,' 1 72. 

Marcy, William L., 198. 

Marion, Robert, 182, 196. 

Marshall, Humphrey, 24 ; ex- 
treme Federalist, 49 ; his 
duel with Clay, 50. 

Marshall, James G.,419. 

Marshall, Thomas A., 51. 

Marshall, Thomas F., 390. 

Marryat, Captain, at " Ash- 
land," 425. 

Martineau, Harriet, at " Ash- 
land," 29. 

Mason, Senator of Virginia, 

345. 348, 349-. 
Masonry in politics, 203. 
Massachusetts, restrictions on 

negroes in, 116. 
Mathew, Father, 343. 
Maury, Mrs., visits Clay, 407- 

410. 
McDuffie, George, 208. 
McLane, Louis, 222. 
Mendenhall, Friend, questions 

Clay, 303-305. 
Mexico, a republic, 307 ; war 

with Texan " patriots," 307 ; 

claims of, upon Texas, 309 ; 

war with threatened. 317, 

325 ; at mercy of United 

States, 328 ; Democrats wish 



INDEX 



445 



to annex, 328 ; empire ac- 
quired from, 343. 

Milan Decree, 49. 

Miller, Stephen F., Clay's let- 
ters to, 315-317. 

Milton, 375. 

Mississippi, right to navigate, 
76; improvement of, 128. 

Missouri Compromise, 105 ; 
Clay's part in, 107 ; who 
originated it, 108- 109 ; prog- 
ress and arrangement of, 109- 
124; Clay on slaveholder's 
side in, 288 ; a solemn pact, 
294 ; Douglas supports, 325 ; 
Clay's reference to it in 1850, 

349- 

Monroe, James, mentioned, 24, 
67, 82 ; opposes internal im- 
provements, 88, 127 ; Clay's 
criticism of, 90-91 ; his atti- 
tude toward South America, 
96 ; Florida proclamation, 
103 ; reelected. 121 ; last of 
the Virginians, 125 ; his Flor- 
ida treaty, 307. 

Monroe Doctrine, 96. 

Moore, James F., 50. 

Morrison, James, his will, 417. 

Napoleon, decrees of, 48-49 ; 
sells Louisiana, 53 ; Federal- 
ist abuse of, 61 ; wars of, 71 ; 
roads of, 89 ; Jackson likened 
to, 251. 

Nashville Convention, 342 ; 
meets and dissolves, 360 ; 
echoes of, 370. 

National Intelligencer, Clay's 
letter to, 142. 

Negroes, plans concerning, in 
Missouri, 109 ; restrictions 
on, in Northern states, 116; 
Clay's, 289 ; Clay favors 
colonization of, 289, 290, 291, 
325 ; colonization of, in Ken- 
tucky, 340-342 ; running 
from man-hunters, 370. 



New England, attitude of, in 
War of 181 2, 60, 66, 67, 71, 
74; Adams represents tradi- 
tions of, 75 ; disaffection in, 
76-77 ; opposed to protective 
tariff, 135; changes its views 
on, 180. 

New Hampshire, restrictions on 
negroes in, 116. 

New Mexico, constitution for 
343 ; Clay favors freedom in 
349 ; in Omnibus Bill, 356 
Taylor's policies as to, 358 
slave-breeding ground, 361 
territorial government for, 
366. 

New York, restrictions on ne- 
groes in, 116. 

Nicholas, George, 23-24, 35. 

Niles, H., Clay to, concerning 
Jackson, 168-169; concern- 
ing Garrison, 289. 

Northumberland, Duke of, 58. 

Nullification, South Carolina 
announces doctrine of, 181- 
183 ; Clay denounces, 182- 
185, 196 ; Jackson against, 
205-206; Madison on, 215; 
Calhoun's unshaken faith in, 
216; nature of doctrine of, 

365- 

Omnibus Bill, 356 ; defeated, 

363, 366. 
O'Neill, Peggy, 166. 
Oregon question, 3 1 1, 326. 
Oregon River, 273. 

Palmerston, Lord, 401. 
Pan-American Congress, 150- 

153 ; Randolph attacks, 153— 

154. 
Penn, William, 35. 
Pennsylvania, slavery abolished 

in, 35 ; battle-ground in 1844, 

3i3-3 x 5- 
Perry, Commodore, 1 26- 1 27. 

Pet Banks, 222. 



446 



INDEX 



Petitions Abolition, received in 
Congress, 291 ; Clay presents, 
292; right to present ought 
not to be abridged, 295 ; 
Adams defends it, 306. 

Pickens, Andrew, 182, 196. 

Pickering, Timothy, 54. 

Pinckneys of South Carolina, 
183. 

Findell, Richard, 42-44, 340. 

Pitkin, Timothy, opposes War 
of 181 2, 64; defeated for 
Speaker, 65. 

Pitt, William, 324. 

Poinsett, Joel R., Minister to 
Mexico, 152, 307. 

Polk, James K., nominated for 
President, 311 ; an unknown 
quantity, 314; elected Presi- 
dent, 318; brings on Mexican 
War, 325 ; Clay dines with, 

333- 
Poore, Ben Perley, on Clay's 

voice, 399. 

Porter, Peter B., 62, 63. 

Preston, William C, on Clay's 
farewell, 286; Clay consults, 
regarding slavery, 295 ; calls 
Clay's defeat a public calam- 
ity. 3*9- 

Price, Mrs., 50. 

Protective Tariff — see Tariff and 
American System. 

Quincy, Josiah, opposes War 
of 18 1 2, 64, 65 ; his opinion 
of Clay, 66-67, 73. 

" Raleigh Letter," 309. 

Randolph, John, 24, 73; op- 
poses War of 181 2, 64, 65, 
67-68 ; proposes to withdraw 
from Union, 1 13; invents 
name of "doughface," 114; 
speaks on Missouri Compro- 
mise, 118; his opposition to 
the Compromise, 121 ; his 
reply to Clay on internal im- 



provements, 1 30-1 3 1 ; his 
foul attack on Clay, 153- 
155 ; duel with Clay, 156— 

*57- 
Rhett, R. B., Clay denounces, 

361, 370. 
Rhode Island, restrictions on 

negroes in, 1 16. 
Rio Perdido, 53, 54. 
Rives, Senator, defends Tyler, 

279, 39°- 
Robertson, Chief-Justice, 383. 

Russell, Jonathan, peace com- 
missioner, 75 ; his opinion of 
J. Q. Adams, 77-78. 

Rutledges of South Carolina, 
183. 

Schurz, Caul, his opinion of 
Clay, 90 ; theory about sup- 
pression of Clay's speeches, 
107 ; praises Clay's tariff" 
speeches, 135, 193; accuses 
Clay of seeking presidency, 
234 ; on Clay's oratory, 401. 

Scott, Winfield, sentiment fa- 
vorable to in New York, 265 ; 
views of, expressed to Clay, 
266-267 ; strength of name 
in convention, 267 ; in Mex- 
ico City, 328 ; votes for in 
Philadelphia convention, 
336 ; Clay opposes nomina- 
tion of in 1852, 377. 

Secession, spoken of as a com- 
mon right, 109 ; nullification 
near kin to, 185 ; Clay's op- 
position to, 351-353* 373-. 

Seminole Indians, Jackson chas- 
tises, 96-97 ; Clay defends, 

99- 
Sergeant, John, on Missouri 

Compromise, 119; envoy to 
Pan-American Congress, 152 ; 
nominated for Vice-President, 
191. 
Seward, William H., Weed's 
support of, 264 ; in Senate. 



INDEX 



447 



345 ; " higher law " speech, 
356 ; eulogy on Clay, 380. 

Shadrach case, 370. 

Shelby, Isaac, 24. 

Shepherd, Moses, erects monu- 
ment to Clay, 404. 

Sherrerd, Representative, 333. 

Shunk, Governor, 314. 

Sieyes, 324. 

Slavery, Clay writes against, 
34-35 ; his dislike of, 106, 
288; in Missouri, 108-124; 
he asks for remedy for, 290- 
291 ; unconstitutional to in- 
terfere with, 291, 299; in 
District of Columbia, 292 ; 
Clay's resolutions regarding, 
293-294 ; he discusses, in 
Senate, 295-297 ; must con- 
tinue, 300 ; Clay's opinion of, 
expressed to Mendenhall, 
303-305 ; his remedy for, 
325 ; discussion of, in Ken- 
tucky, 339-340 ; bitterness 
over, 341-342; injected into 
everything, 344, 346 ; Clay's 
opinion of, in 1850, 354. 

Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison, 
tells of Clay's sorrows, 31- 
32 ; present to hear Clay on 
Jackson, 98-99 ; her impres- 
sions of Clay, 160-162 ; tells 
of Jackson's arrival in Wash- 
ington, 166-168; her ad- 
miration of Clay, 406 ; on 
his domestic relations, 410. 

Smyth, General, of Virginia, 
426. 

Soule, Senator, of Louisiana, 
345. 423. 

Southard, Judge, 160. 

South Carolina, declares tariff 
unconstitutional, 180; issues 
"Exposition of 1828," 181; 
Clay defines and denounces 
position of, 1 8 2- 185, 196- 
197 ; large share of offices 
held by, 184; not pacified, 



204 ; votes for Floyd, 205 ; 
calls a convention, 205 ; 
Clay's efforts to conciliate, 
209-212; to be coerced if 
she secedes, 373. 

Spain, holds Florida, 53 ; revo- 
lution in her American col- 
onies, 91-96; respect for 
minister of, 95 ; Florida pur- 
chased from, 101-102. 

Spanish Americans, Clay advo- 
cates independence of, 91- 
96; slavery abolished by, 
107 ; Clay's efforts for a con- 
gress of, 1 50- 1 5 2. 

Specie Circular, 246. 

Spoils System, Jackson intro- 
duces, 167, 174, 188; Clay 
denounces, 174-175, 198, 
233 ; corrupts Whig party, 
274. 

Sprague, Peleg, 217. 

Stephens, A. H., hears Clay 
speak, 332-333. 

Stevenson, Andrew, 228. 

Stevenson, Thomas B., Clay's 
letters to, on campaign of 
1848, 335 ; on Philadelphia 
convention, 337 ; on Taylor, 
338 ; on secession, 373. 

Story, Justice, his anecdote of 
Clay, 424. 

Struthers, John, 384. 

Sub-treasury system, Van Bu- 
ren recommends, 247 ; Clay 
opposes, 249-251; Calhoun 
favors, 254 ; bill to establish 
passed, 261 ; Clay moves to 
repeal, 272 ; Whig plan to 
repeal, 277-278. 

Sumner, Charles, oratory of, 

391. 
Sumter, Thomas, 182, 196. 
Surplus, distribution of, 244- 

247. - 
Swartmout, Mr., 41. 

Tallmadge, James, 109. 



448 



INDEX 



Taney, Roger B., 222, 228. 

Tappan, Arthur, 289. 

Tariff', Clay advocates, 51, 84; 
of 18 1 6, 86, 131 ; increased 
rates demanded, 13 1— 135 ; 
called the " American sys- 
tem," 132; of 1828, 179; of 
1 832-1833, 207-215 ; not the 
real cause of the trouble, 216- 
217; compromise rates dis- 
pleasing to manufacturers, 
218; too low, 283-284; of 
1842, 306; fraud in Penn- 
sylvania, 313-314; of 1846, 

334- 

Taylors, of South Carolina, 183. 

Taylor, John W., leader of free- 
state men, no; elected 
Speaker, 115; declares Clay 
out of order, 123. 

Taylor, Zachary, H. Clay, Jr., 
in army of, 327 ; candidate 
for President, 330 ; no party 
attachments, 331 ; Clay op- 
poses, 331 ; nominated for 
President, 336; elected, 339 ; 
Clay invited to dine with, 
341 ; Clay's influence over, 
342; threatens the South, 
355-356 ; policies of, opposed 
by Clay, 356 ; death of, 360 ; 
relative strength of, and Clay, 

372. 

Tecumseh, 189. 

Texas, excluded from Florida 
purchase, 101-103 ; contest 
over annexation of, 306-330 ; 
Clay's position on, stated in 
"Raleigh Letter," 309-310; 
Democrats demand annex- 
ation of, 311 ; Senate refuses 
to annex, 315 ; "Alabama Let- 
ters " on, 315-317 ; joint reso- 
lution to annex, 325 ; Clay's 
opposition to, 328-330 ; fix- 
ing western bounds of, 347, 
356, 366 ; debt of, 347. 

Thomas, Senator, of Illinois, 112. 



Thruston, Buckner, 51. 

Tinsley, Peter, 18. 

Tinsley, Thomas, 18. 

Tories, Clay's name for the 
Jackson men, 229. 

Transylvania University, Clay 
trustee of, 417 ; Clay secures 
money for, 417. 

Turkey, Greek revolt against, 
103-104. 

Tyler, John, for Vice-President, 
268 ; becomes President, 
276 ; accounted a friend of 
Clay, 276-277 ; approves 
Clay's vote for Adams, 276; 
a strict constructionist, 276 ; 
opposes expungers, 276 ; ve- 
toes bank bill, 278 ; his " cor- 
poral's guard," 279 ; read 
out of party, 280-281 ; de- 
clares Clay a "doomed man," 
281 ; a " flash in the pan," 
303 ; takes up cause of 
Texas, 308 ; consorts with 
Democrats, 308 ; makes Cal- 
houn Secretary of State, 309 ; 
renominates himself, 311 ; his 
treachery to the Whigs, 311 ; 
finds endorsement in Clay's 
defeat, 325 ; his joint resolu- 
tion policy, 325 ; hurries off 
envoy to Texas, 325. 

Ullman, Daniel, Clay writes 
to, on Taylor, 331 ; on Com- 
promise of 1850, 355 ; on 
campaign of 1852, 372. 

Underwood, Joseph R., an- 
nounces death of Clay, 379; 
accompanies his body to Lex- 
ington, 383. 

Upshur, Secretary of State, es- 
pouses Texas, 308 ; killed, 
308. 

Utah, in Omnibus Bill, 356, 
363 ; Clay's policy as 10,358. 

Van Arsdale, Doctor, 350. 



INDEX 



449 



Van Buren, Martin, nominated 
Minister to England and re- 
jected, 197-199 ; creature of 
Jackson, 199, 240; Clay ad- 
dresses, on subject of financial 
distress,- 225-227 ; elected 
President, 235 ; his legaoy of 
panic, 246-247 ; recom- 
mends independent treasury, 
247 ; Clay accuses Calhoun 
of supporting, 258 ; Clay at- 
tacks, 261 ; Grundy in cab- 
inet of, 270 ; defeated by 
Harrison, 27 1 ; declines to 
buy Texas, 307 ; candidate 
for President in 1844, 309; 
agrees to keep silent as to 
Texas, 309 ; his letter in 
Globe, 310; set aside by 
convention, 311. 

Vermont, restrictions upon ne- 
groes in, 116. 

Walker, Senator, of Wis- 
consin, 364. 

Watkins, Henry, Henry Clay's 
stepfather, 18; removes to 
Kentucky, 20. 

Watkins, Mrs. Henry — see Mrs. 
John Clay. 

Watkins, John, 16. 

" War Hawks," 60, 67, 173. 

War of 18 1 2, declaration of, 64 ; 
Federalists oppose, 65-66 ; 
Randolph opposes, 66 ; mis- 
fortunes in, 68-71 ; issues 
involved in, 71-73. 

Washington's farewell address, 
Clay speaks of, 344. 

Webster, Daniel, 80 ; changes 
mind on tariff question, 86 ; 
favors Greece, 103 ; opposes 
higher tariff, 132-133 ; advo- 
cates tariff, 180; his debates 
with Hayne, 183-184; urges 
Clay to return to Washing- 
ton, 187 ; denounces Jackson 
for bank veto, 201 ; replies to 



Calhoun, 212; cordial rela- 
tions of, with Clay, 217; op- 
poses removal of deposits, 
222 ; presents petitions, 225 ; 
candidate for President in 
1836, 235 ; resists expungers, 
239 ; Calhoun's opinion of, 
253 ; his designs on presi- 
dency in 1840, 262; his 
friends oppose Clay, 263 ; 
Secretary of State, 274; aims 
to reconcile Tyler to bank, 
280 ; remains in cabinet, 280 ; 
criticized by Whigs, 281 ; op- 
poses purchase of Texas, 308 ; 
leaves State Department, 308; 
endorses Clay for President, 
310; votes for, in Philadel- 
phia convention, 336 ; re- 
turned to Senate, 345 ; March 
the 7th speech, 355 ; in State 
Department, 360 ; hears 
Jenny Lind, 369 ; Clay op- 
poses his nomination in 1852, 
377; oratory of, 391; com- 
pared with Clay, 427. 

Webster-Hayne debates, 183- 
184, 253. 

Weed, Thurlow, manoeuvres 
of, hostile to Clay, 263-267 ; 
again plans to defeat Clay, 
330 ; fears open combat, 

405- 
Wellington, Duke of, 324. 

Whig party, Clay forming, 83, 
173 ; Clay names, 229 ; pol- 
icies of, after 1840, 277; de- 
fied by Tyler, 278-279 ; Tyler 
read out of, 280-281 ; its 
campaign in 1844, 311 ; its 
morale broken, 314; knell 

° f » 339- 

White, Andrew D., his valu- 
ation of Clay, 429. 

White, Hugh L., candidate for 
President, 235. 

Whittier, John G., asks Clay to 
aid Garrison, 289. 



450 INDEX 

i 

Wilkinson, General, 44. •< Woolens Bill," 180. 

Williamses, of South Carolina, Wright, Silas, 422. 

iw 1 ! 83 " t, • Wythe, George, Chancellor, 18: 

Wilmot Proviso, 343. urges Clay to study law, 10 • 

Winthrop, Robert C, praises Clay's respect for, 94. 

Clay as Speaker, 145-146; 

other recollections of Clay, " Yuung Republicans," in 

w^°\a1mi I; S , enate> 55 5 programme of 

Wirt William, 204. after war, 86; become 

Woodbury, Levi, 248. Whigs, 173. 






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